A reinstall won't help a thing. Start here.

Move any messages you want to save out of Deleted Items, Sent Items and the
Inbox to folders that you create and then close OE and delete the dbx files
for these three folders.

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.

With OE closed, find the Deleted Items.dbx, Sent Items.dbx and Inbox.dbx
files and delete them. New files will be created automatically when you open
OE.

Compact all folders as described below.

To help prevent this in the futu

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
--

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


"Allen Grant" wrote in message
...
I am no longer receiving notice of incoming email messages (no icon or
sound). As of today, I am having problems deleting messages. I have
scanned my computer for viruses and adware and found nothing. Can I
reinstall OE6.0 or do I have to reinstall IE6.0? If I do reinstall it,
will I lose all my messages? Any suggestions? Thanks.

Big Owl