Hello. Basically, when I close OE a window appears which reads, "To free up
disk space, Outlook Express can compact messages. This may take up to a few
minutes." For now, I've been clicking the cancel button.

My questions: 1) Why or what has caused this message to appear today versus
a few weeks ago? (I have 11 read messages in my inbox), 2) Is there something
in my settings that I can modify to get rid of this message?, 3) Is it a good
thing to compact my messages when I see this particular compact message?

Lastly, I'm a little hesitate about compacting the messages only because
i've read postings in this forum in which people say they lose their messages
after compacting, etc......maybe those people are referring to a different
problem than mine, but I'm not for sure. Thank you in advance. Rochelle.
--
Thank You!

The two most common reasons people lose messages is disruption of the
compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), and bloated
folders.

Compacting your folders periodically is a must to keep OE functioning well
and at some point, you may lose all your saved messages if you don't. When
you delete messages, they are only marked for deletion and the space they
had used, remains until you compact, or the space is eventually overwritten.
See:
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2

With SP2, automatic background compacting was removed due to problems it
caused. Now you will get a prompt to compact after 100 OE closings, which
you should do and don't touch anything until it has finished. See this for
more information:
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact

Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact

To keep things running smooth, and for faster compacting:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt and you may lose mail. 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.

And this is a very good option:

Steve Cochran has added a button in his new version of OE Tool that will not
only Compact All Folders, but at the same time, resets the "Compact Check
Count" to zero whenever you compact manually. You will see the prompt again
if you do not compact before 100 closings.

http://www.oehelp.com/OETool/

You should still check: Work Offline before you compact.

And backup often and you won't have to worry about losing messages.

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~

"cmptr_iliterate" wrote in
message ...
Hello. Basically, when I close OE a window appears which reads, "To free
up
disk space, Outlook Express can compact messages. This may take up to a
few
minutes." For now, I've been clicking the cancel button.

My questions: 1) Why or what has caused this message to appear today
versus
a few weeks ago? (I have 11 read messages in my inbox), 2) Is there
something
in my settings that I can modify to get rid of this message?, 3) Is it a
good
thing to compact my messages when I see this particular compact message?

Lastly, I'm a little hesitate about compacting the messages only because
i've read postings in this forum in which people say they lose their
messages
after compacting, etc......maybe those people are referring to a different
problem than mine, but I'm not for sure. Thank you in advance. Rochelle.
--
Thank You!

After every 100th time you close Outlook Express, the program offers to
compact your messages. This is an important maintenance procedure that you
should not cancel. Compacting consolidates e-mail messages (and news posts)
on your hard disk. Since you have cancelled out of compacting you should do
it manually now.

Start by working offline (File Work Offline).

To compact e-mail folders, select an e-mail folder and on the File menu
point to Folder and then click Compact.

To compact stored newsgroup messages: On the Tools menu, click Options; on
the Maintenance tab click Clean Up Now; and then follow the instructions on
the screen.

Compacting causes trouble for people who've allowed their mailboxes to get
too big or who fail to work offline when compacting.
--
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

"cmptr_iliterate" wrote in
message ...
Hello. Basically, when I close OE a window appears which reads, "To free
up
disk space, Outlook Express can compact messages. This may take up to a
few
minutes." For now, I've been clicking the cancel button.

My questions: 1) Why or what has caused this message to appear today
versus
a few weeks ago? (I have 11 read messages in my inbox), 2) Is there
something
in my settings that I can modify to get rid of this message?, 3) Is it a
good
thing to compact my messages when I see this particular compact message?

Lastly, I'm a little hesitate about compacting the messages only because
i've read postings in this forum in which people say they lose their
messages
after compacting, etc......maybe those people are referring to a different
problem than mine, but I'm not for sure. Thank you in advance. Rochelle.
--
Thank You!