No bother. That's why we're here.

No, you won't lose your messages if you empty the Recycle Bin. As I
explained, a backup is made there when you compact.

Canned

This is due to the OE update, (KB923694). Now when you compact, a copy of
your dbx files are sent to the Recycle Bin in the event that something
should go wrong and messages, or entire folders, are lost when you are
compacting.

Many people do not back up Outlook Express on a regular basis. This new
mandatory backup is something people have been asking for quite awhile as we
spend a lot of time helping people getting their messages back, and they
have to purchase a tool to recover messages.

You can empty the Recycle Bin any time you want and the bak files will go
away until you compact again.

For more info, see the information outlined in red he
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2

If you don't currently back up OE regularly, I would suggest you get this,
or a similar tool, (freeware):

This freeware tool backs up everything in OE in seconds. Disregard what is
written in red. That is referring to a different program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"Bubey" wrote in message
...
Sorry to bother you again, but I just did the compacting. I found all my
OE
mgs/folders in the Recycle
Bin with .bak extension. If I emply the Recycle will I loose my stuff?

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
I can't make any *hands-on* recommendations, but: Windows Live Mail,
Thunderbird, Eudora, Pegasus, Opera.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"Bubey" wrote in message
...

Thanks for all the suggestions and links !
Since OE is no longer going to be enhanced and it will probably
happen down the line with Windows Mail since it's also MS, whose
mail program could you recommend, similar to Outlook Express,
that will keep being enhanced by the company who developed it.
Thanks ! Bubey

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Second question answer. The OE development team was disbanded in 2006
since
this is the last version of OE that will be produced, but not to get
people
to switch to Windows Mail which you can only have in Vista.

There are more problems in WinMail than they fixed and that e-mail
program
is being all but abandoned. If you read through the Windows Vista Mail
newsgroup, you will see many suggestions for people to switch to Windows
Live Mail which you can use with Vista and XP.

Windows Live Mail (Overview & Features):
http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

~~~~~~~~

As far as losing messages when compacting, this is my standard *canned*
reply. Note the do's and don'ts and even with the automatic backup, a
program like OEQB, (mentioned near the end), is a good idea.

The two most common reasons for what you describe is disruption of the
compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), or
bloated
folders. More on that below.

Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact

Why Mail Disappears:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone

About File Corruption:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx

Recovery tools:

If you are running XP/SP2, and are fully patched, then you should have a
backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, (or possibly the message
store), copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first find the
location
of the Message Store.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to it in
Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under
Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

Close OE and then in Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the
missing, or empty, folder and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted
later once you have successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the
Message
Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact*
same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new
folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

First, check if there is a bak file already in the message store. If
there
is, and you removed the dbx file, go ahead and rename it to dbx.

If it isn't already in the message store, open the Recycle bin and right
click on the bak file for the folder in question and click Restore. Open
the
message store back up and change the file extension from .bak to .dbx.
Close
the message store and open OE. The messages should now be back in the
folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete
the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode is the best chance to recover
messages:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

And see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

A general warning to help avoid this in the futu

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move
your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user
created
folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant
layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

And this good one click backup program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"Bubey" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply and links......No, OE just keep asking me
I did once and lost msg from view in OE. Finally found them,
can't remember where now. Just don't want to loose them
again or if stored somewhere on my hard drive I just wanted
to know where and if I can change the name.
I've been having problems with OE (this may be why) from
another post, where I lost my original address book. Solved
that problem but didn't want to create another one with the
compacting.

Side question: I have seen remarks that elude to MS not doing
any more programming for OE since they want people to switch
to Windows Mail. True or False? My hubby has Vista/Windows
Mail and I don't like it. I like the flexibility of OE over Outlook,
but I miss having the Calendar and being able to have the
best of both worlds......................Bubey

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Compacting only removes space taken up by moved or deleted messages. It
doesn't move any. Did you lose any messages?

Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact

About File Corruption:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx

Compacting your folders periodically is a must to keep OE functioning
well
and at some point, you may lose all your saved messages if you don't.
When
you delete, or move messages, the space they had used remains until you
compact. Never touch anything until the compacting is finished.

See:
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2

With SP2, automatic background compacting was removed due to problems it
caused. Now you will get a prompt to compact after 100 OE closings,
which
you should do, and don't touch anything until it has finished. If you
compact manually, at your convenience, this will also set the counter
back
to zero. See this for more information:
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact

If you are fully patched, you will also now see a copy of your dbx files
being copied to the Recycle Bin as BAK files. Should something go awry
when
compacting, the messages can easily be restored from this backup. A
manual
compact will also reset the counter in the registry back to zero now.

For more info, see the information outlined in red he
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2

To keep things running smooth, and for faster compacting:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt and you may lose mail. Create your own user defined folders for
storing mail and move your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder
regularly. Keep user created folders under 100MB, and Default folders as
empty as is feasible.

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"Bubey" wrote in message
...
Where are the Compacted msg's stored? I understand
that it's important to say yes to compacting but where
do I find the old msg when I need to get to it?
I have goggled and googled but can't find an answer.