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.

Is that the *exact* place you are looking? As PA Bear said, you are probably
compacting one identities store folder and looking at another for results.
--

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


"Walter R." wrote in message
...
Thanks, Bruce, but it did not work. I followed your instructions to the
letter but the dbx file for deleted items still shows 37 MB of stuff that
does not show up in Deleted Items folder in Outlook Express.

Anything else that may be wrong?

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
-
"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Tools | Options | Maintenance | Clean Up Now only does newsgroups.
Compact as follows and you'll see the dbx files reduce in size.

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.

Compact Your OE Folders:
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact
--

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


"Walter R." wrote in message
...
At the end of each month I make an image of my system. (Acronis)

In preparation, I get rid of temp files and other unneeded stuff that
has accumulated during the month.

I then clean out the Outlook express files in Options Maintenance.

I then clean up the files in Outlook Express, leaving only one month of
messages: Deleted files, Inbox and Sent items

However, when in look in the OE folder in Doc. & Settings, all the dbx
folders that I cleaned up still show many MB of messages. E.g. Deleted
files still shows 37 MB of deleted messages although the folder in
Outlook Express is empty. These files keep getting larger and thus
increase the size of my images.

How can I clean up all of the content of the dbx files? I know, I could
dispose of the deleted files by deleting the dbx folder. OE will then
make a new deleted folder when I open up OE the next time. But, I do not
want to delete the Inbox folder or the Sent Items Folder because I lose
all recent messages.

?

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
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