Hi Bruce,

Thanks. It was an 0x800C0131 error message nad has affected sending E-Mail
MOST of the time the last 48 hours.
I Googled the error and a lot of advice said just rename/back up the
Folders.dbx file and re-start OE. I did..and as I noted all my directory
folders are now flat (I can redo those) but my Sent Items folder is empty. I
do have a BIG "Sent Items.dbx" file still on my hard drive, and I have the
entire Folders.bak from what I renamed. I also have a 30-day old backup of
my "Identities" folder which is on my backup Hard Disk.

So. I'll pay $25 if I need to but I'd rather not. Will I just be restoring a
corrupt Sent Items folder that will cause me future grief or is there a way
to identify/fix/delete the message or part of the file that caused the
problem?

Thanks again to you and Jim for quick responses so far.

Bob
"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
If you had posted the error message, we probably could have helped you
without you losing your mail.

Recovery tools.

DBXtract:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx

DBXpress: {much faster for large files}
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

Some general OE advice *after* you have recovered the messages:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt. 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.

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.

In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background
and
leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}.

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.

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Bob Hayden" wrote in message
om...
The last 2 days my OE E-Mail has not been sending about 90% of the time
(error msg)...but occasionally it does. Pain in the rear but at least it
did
get sent. I read that I could possibly fix this by renaming FOLDERS.DBX
to
FOLDERS.BAK and then re-staritng OE and it would build a new FOLDERS.DBX
file.

I did this, and the first thing I notice is that the directory structure
is
messed up but that's an easy fix. What troubles me is that my SENT MAIL
folder, with 5+ years of messages, is EMPTY.

Any advice/assistance on how to restore the contents of the SENT MAIL
folder, either in the SENT MAIL folder or an archive folder, is
appreciated.