1. Understand that what you see in your Hotmail folders in OE only mirrors
what's on the server, so it's not necessary to back-up any of your OE's
Hotmail folders. The server is your backup.

...files become doubled

2. See http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#dupes

...every time I reinstall xp

I suppose we could ask why you keep finding it necessary to reinstall WinXP,
but...

3. Your current Identity is probably damaged, especially if its the default
Main Identity. Try one or more of your accounts in a new Named Identity
(File Identities Add new identity). Assuming all is well, (1) compact
all folders in the old identity, (2) import messages from the old identity
into the new one [Don't bother with any Hotmail folders; see #1 above], and
then (3) delete the old one (File Identities Manage Identities).

To avoid such corruption in futu

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Disable Background Compacting [N/A in SP2] and frequently perform a manual
compact of all OE folders while "working offline". More at
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

- WinXP SP2 only: Do not attempt to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown
your machine if Automatic Compacting is taking place.

- WinXP SP2 only: If your machine is fully up-to-date at Windows Update,
installing the following patch (KB918766) will help to avoid such data loss
in the futu
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...2-98af2256ccc3

This patch will be included in the next Cumulative Update for Outlook
Express/WinXP SP2.

- Your anti-virus application's email scanning feature can also cause
corruption. Disable it. It provides no additional protection.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Shell/User, Security), Aumha.org VSOP, DTS-L.org


Johnny wrote:
Are you stating that you see messages in the Sent Items folder at
www.hotmail.com which do not show up when you open OE to your Hotmail
Sent Items folder (not the Local Sent Items folder)?

Yes.

Do messages in the Inbox at www.hotmail.com show up when you open OE to
your Hotmail Inbox?

Yes there seems to be no problem with downloading the Inbox. Indeed I
wish I could stop the download deluge every time I reinstall xp and
recofigure OE (files become doubled, for one thing; I want only the saved
.dbx files to be configured, as in these I have deleted spam) while
keeping them safe on my server.

Is this sudden, new behavior or an ongoing problem?

No, I have had this pattern for years. Even stranger is that even when I
save the .dbx files, whether by OE Quick Backup or, as I recall, by other
means, there's always a group of mails covering a period, always just
before the time of the backup, that are not saved. On this occasion there
were many months of Sent Items files that I was saving, and no large
periods between occasions when I have sent messages either by Hotmail or
the other account (UK2) I have on OE (in fact I have been using both a
great deal recently). But the Hotmail backup for some reason didn't save
the last 2 weeks' worth of sent items and the UK2 didn't save the last
three days of sent items. The messages were definitely recorded in OE
before the backup, though.
Johnny wrote:
I notice my Hotmail Sent Items folder does not download from webmail
to OE. Is there any way to rectify this?