Hi Bruce.
Problem sorted. You were 100% right. I found all the folders in the Recycle
Bin and after following your detailed instructions, I have got all my
messages back where they were. I realise now these folders are not a safe
option to keep important data on and will be acting on it right away. I have
learnt a very good lesson here and I consider myself lucky too, as I normally
empty my recycle bin every couple of days or so. However, I wish to say that
I am extremely grateful for your prompt reply and expert guidance. I think
you people deserve every commendation for the excellent work you provide.
As a matter of interest and before closing this chapter; I found all the
folders from the root OE Folder (dbx) in the recycle bin as BAK folders. I
did not loose any of my named folders in Folders/Inbox, only the messages
within in some of them. The mayority of these folders, as stated, had been
emptied but a few remained intact, so why only a percentage and not all of
them?
Anyway, many thanks for everything and best wishes.
Tony
(mmy thanks too to everyone else who joined in)

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

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


"Tony" wrote in message
...
Hi, My email folders were recently compressed and I have only just noticed
that the bottom half of the folders in my list are empty. The top half
have
all of the original messages as intended. I opened the root OE folder and
can
see that all of the folders are present and under list/details, all the
data
is still present (just under 100mb for all of them) I did an import only
to
find that, again, all of the top folders have got their messages repeated
but
nothing dowloaded on the others (a second import brought same results).
What
might have been the reason for this? Why are they not importing and is
there
anything I an do to retrieve these? I am a bit worried because I do ot
have a
back up and they are important.
Any advise greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
Tony