...when I got to the Accounts window
in Outlook Express, the previous accounts did not appear.

You'll have to configure the mail account manually in the new identity.

The current Identity may be damaged, especially if its the default Main
Identity. Try one or more of the mail accounts in a new Named Identity
(File | Identities | Add new identity). Assuming all is well, (1) compact
all folders in the old identity, (2) import messages from the old identity
into the new one, and then (3) delete the old one (File | Identities |
Manage Identities).

To avoid such corruption in futu

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Disable Background Compacting [removed in WinXP SP2] and frequently
perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working offline". More at
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

- WinXP SP2 only: Do not cancel Automatic Compacting, should it occur, and
do not attempt to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if
Automatic Compacting is taking place.

- Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can cause
corruption (i.e., loss of messages), it provides no additional protection,
and even Symantec says it's not necessary:

QP
Disabling Email Scanning does not leave you unprotected against viruses that
are distributed as email attachments. Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect scans
incoming files as they are saved to your hard drive, including email and
email attachments. Email Scanning is just another layer on top of this. To
make sure that Auto-Protect is providing the maximum protection, keep
Auto-Protect enabled and run LiveUpdate regularly to ensure that you have
the most recent virus definitions.
/QP
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...02111812533106
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/

wrote:
I have a senior citizen friend in another town that has this problem.
I found the web-site http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290684. He does
not have Outlook, so I attempted to use the procedure under "Create a
new Outlook Express identity", but when I got to the Accounts window
in Outlook Express, the previous accounts did not appear.
This scared me, so I abandoned the effort. If this procedure is
completed, will it knock out the previous e-mail account?