I didn't do anything except look for them and couldn't find anything,
the phone rang. Came back and all the emails came back, weird?
Hank
"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
First, check the obvious. Go to the Inbox and click View | Current
View | Show All Messages.

If that was checked, then read on.

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, or SP3, 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.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"Henry Kolesnik" wrote in message
...
I had several hundred emails in my inbox and all disappeared after I
took a look in my Sent Items. The emails are not in Deleted Items.
What happened and how do I prevent it and can Iget them back?
Thanks
Hank