Thanks Bruce managed to fet folders back, however interested in your comments
on a couple of points.

1) The .dbx files were not hidden in the message store and enabling and
disabling show hidden files made no difference!

2) Dragged .dbx to desktop, opened OE & created folder with *exact* name,
opened new folder & closed OE. No .bak in message store so restored from
recycle bin. Went back to message store tried to rename .bak to .dbx but
could not because anther .dbx file had appeared in the message store. Decided
to drag new .dbx to desktop and chose to overwrite original .dbx in desktop.
I can only assume that when new folder was created in OE this created a new
..dbx file in the message store. Have you heard of this happening beforeor did
I do something wrong in the process.
--
Regards
Pete


"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

System Restore does not reclaim messages. This tells you how to get the
messages back, and the last section explains how to help avoid this in the
future.

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


"Pete Harris" wrote in message
...
I have been reading some of the posts that already exist in this group and
am
now aware of some of the problems that can occur when compacting. Some of
the
solutions are a bit over my head therefore anyone who is kind enough to
answer this please bare this in mind.

Recently I was prompted to "Compact" my emails / Folders in Outlook
Express
6. Afterwards I experienced the following problems.

1) My sub folders all became main folders under the local folders.
2) Some folders are missing from the local folders list, however they do
appear to exist as .dbx files.
3) All of my recent emails in my "Sent Items" folder are missing.
4) My link to this discussion group (Outlook Express 6) has disappeared.

Can anyone explain why these problems have occurred and more importantly
how
can I overcome them? I have used a "System Restore" to a point before I
compacted when everything was ok, but this did not help.

--
Regards
Pete