Its really going to be specific to the machine. There's no telling what
could have done that. If for some reason OE is unable to open the message
store in the designated location, then it creates a new one. What could
have resulted in the glitch is anybody's speculation.

The bak files are normal and have saved many (see
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 -- you can see there is a long history of such
troubles).

The best thing you can do is backup regularly.

steve

"GTifeld" wrote in message
...
Hi Steve,

I had a friend with a similar problem and I was able to find the missing
dbx
files and re-import them.

I'm just curious. What could have caused something like this in the first
place. The user of the computer is not at all PC-literate, but he swears
he
didn't do anything different and nothing unusual happened just before his
messages disappeared.

I also found a whole mess of *.bak files in his recycle bin that match the
original *.dbx files in size and date.

Any ideas? Like I said, I'm just curious. Thanks.
Any ideas?

"Steve Cochran" wrote:

It sounds as if you lost the entire user profile, or at least you lost
the
previous message store location. I would do an Advanced Search for *.dbx
and include hidden files and folders under the Advanced search
parameters.
Make sure also you have in Explorer, Tools | Folder Options | View and
uncheck the option to hide extensions of known file types and to show
hidden
files and perhaps even protected and OS files. That way you will see
them
if they are there.

If you find a directory of dbx files that are not the current ones, then
you
can try File | Import | Messages to get them into the current message
store.
See www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

steve

"Bobby" wrote in message
...
Following the last Windows Update all my email messages and contacts
have
been lost
Am Using Win XP with Auto updates turned on
My desktop picture also disappeared and now the desktop is a plain blue
colour and
When I look in the message store
Userlocal settingsapplication data
identities?{91D2DB82-1315-4914-B477-BAD761E79D3A}Microsoft Outlook
Express
I just have the default and empty dbx files - all my many folders etc.
have
gone.

I tried system restore to before the update and nothing has
re-appeared.

Where could my email messages/contacts have gone?

Thanks
Bobby