"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Create a new Outbox, and Sent Items folder.

Do the following for the Outbox, and Sent Items after you move any
messages you wish to save to a local folder you create.

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, Win2K & Win2K3, the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by default
marked as hidden. To view these files in Windows Explorer, you must enable
Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options
Icon | View, or in Windows Explorer | Tools | Folder Options | View.

With OE closed, find the Outbox.dbx and Sent Items.dbx file and delete
them. New files will be created automatically when you open OE.

To help prevent this in the futu

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt. 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.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually while
working *offline* and do it often.

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders are
open. Then: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the
Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything
until the compacting is completed.

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

In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2 or SP3}.

Bruce

I already do all but one of the things you suggest i.e. not archiving mail
in default folders, emptying the deleted items on exit etc. The thing I
haven't kept an eye on is the size of the user created folders.

I followed the steps above to the letter. I also checked the file sizes for
the 3 folders that were over 100MB, ran compact all folders as instructed
and then checked the folder sizes again after exiting OE6 and they had not
changed. I then manually deleted selected old items in these large folders
and checked file sizes again but they were still unchanged. However, the
Deleted Items folder was now over 280MB even though the folder was empty
when viewed in OE6. When I tried to delete more old archived mail the
Delete button had no effect so I assume the Deleted Items folder was either
too large or had become corrupted..

I tried to move the Deleted Items folder to another directory so that it
would be re-created the next time I started OE6 but couldn't move the folder
because it was in use by OE6 or another application. OE6 was not running at
this time so I re-booted the machine and was then able to move the folder,
went back in to OE6 and it re-created as expected but when I exited again
and checked in Explorer, the 3 large folders were still the same size.

At this time I went back to working online and an incoming message was
received. I immediately tried to send a reply but the same problem recurred
and the message just sat in the Out Box until I re-booted the machine and,
naturally enough, it was sent.

Is there any thing else I can do?

Thanks

Garry