The import process was being refused, as I said. OE wouldn't let me import
anything at all, not even from my other account. I guess I shouldn't be on
hotmail but it's too late to change.

You obviously know what you're talking about so I take your word for it that
deleting the old identity is not the same as deleting the messages.

Now I shall have a go at recovering through dbextract, which I notice is
featured on the next thread in this newsgroup.

Cheers,
Johnny


"PA Bear" wrote in message
...
Did you test the Hotmail account in the new identity (specifically Sent
Items), as I suggest, before you deleted the old identity? Sounds like
you didn't, so now they're gone.

Honestly, even if you'd backed-up Hotmail Sent Items.dbx and managed to
import it into the new identity, all messages in that folder would
disappear as soon as the folder synched with the server.

Live and learn, I guess. Sorry you had to learn it the hard way.
--
~PA Bear

Johnny wrote:
Oh dear I made this dreadful mistake of deleting my sent items in my main
identity thinking they would be retained in the new identity. Now they
don't
show at all, not even in the server.
I obviously should have imported into a custom-made folder. However when
I
try to do that a panel comes up saying that it can't import them because
the
file might be in use (which it is not) and when I go through the
Application
data route it says the same thing; and indeed I don't know which of the
Identities folders is the old one.

Cheers,
Johnny


"PA Bear" wrote in message
...
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?