Are you are still getting the directdb.dll error?
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA


"Bill Bradshaw" wrote in message
...
I all ready tried creating a new identity and in fact am using it now. I
will try this again tomorrow. The problem is that it is differenct folders
everytime and of course once it happens on a folder OE then stops and has
to be shut down usually through the task manager.
--
Bill

Brought to you from Anchorage, Alaska.

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Is this happening to every folder, or a select few? If the latter, create
new folders, move the messages to them and then compact. If it is
happening to many folders, create a new identity. Import the messages and
try compacting there. If successful, just use the new named identity.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA


"Bill Bradshaw" wrote in message
...
Using File-Folder-Compact folder by individual folder blew up the 3rd
email folder I tried it on. Compacting has worked reliably for years
and now it can no longer be trusted. I am still open to suggestions.
--
Bill

Brought to you from Anchorage, Alaska.

"Bill Bradshaw" wrote in message
...
I did try his offline, File-Folder-Compact All Folders and what
happened is it started messing up my email folders and I can not have
that. Fortunately I keep a backup so I was able restore the folders that
were damaged. That is why I am only doing newsgroups. I am going to
set through each folder, both email and news groups, and compact them
individually and see if this helps.
--
Bill

Brought to you from Anchorage, Alaska.

"Gerry" wrote in message
...
Bill

If only newsgroups are compacted it would seem you are selecting
Tools, Options, Maintenance. CleanUp Now, Compact. That is not what
Bruce was recommending.
--
Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bill Bradshaw wrote:
Bruce Hagen wrote:
Head this and it should reduce the chance of a reoccurrence.

General precautions for Outlook Express:

Do not archive mail in the Inbox or Sent Items. Create your own user
defined folders and move the messages you wish to save to them.
Empty
Deleted Items folder daily. Although dbx files have a theoretical
capacity of 2GB, I recommend about a 300MB max for less chance of
corruption.
Information about the maximum file size of the .dbx files that are
used by Outlook Express:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=903095

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}.

And backup often.

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

"Bill Bradshaw" wrote in message
...
I built a new identity and it finally compacted after stopping a
couple of times. Hopefully maybe it will now start workingr
reliably.

I follow all the suggestions at 903095 already. I do not keep
anything in my inbox, send, delete, etc. I do a manual compact
everday while offline and the only thing compacted are the news
groups and I only keep 12 days worth of message in those folders (the
largest newsgroup file is 700 kB). One dbx file in my email section
is 57 mB. So it is not file size. This is really strange.
Fortunately my saved emails are not affected and it just means I have
to re-download 12 days of the messages in the newgroup(s) that are
impacted by the compacting problem. I also keep my messages in a
subdirectory on partition E so they are not mixed in with alot of
other stuff.