Not in one syllable, or even a paragraph.

The two most common reasons for what you describe is disruption of the
compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), and bloated
folders. More on that below.

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

Why Mail Disappears:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone

About File Corruption:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx

Recovery tools:

If you are using a fully patched version of XP/SP2, see:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918069/en-us

If not:

DBXpress run in Disk Mode is the best chance to recover messages:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

And see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

A general warning if you don't want to lose your messages in the futu

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

"moorgain" wrote in message
...
Good morning Bruce
Hoping you can help a illiterate novice computer user. Obviously there has
been an upgrade because I have been getting a 'compact your files' message
popping up every time I touch my OE. Unfortunately in a hurry the other
day I
clicked yes instead of cancel and all the files I had been keeping the
inmportant stuff in have disappeared. Can you tell me in words of 1
syllable
where they have gone and how or if I can get them back
Thank you
Christine

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

No. Hardly a day goes by without someone posting that OE compacted and
now
their messages are gone. And did they have them backed up? Of course not.
Now they have to purchase a retrieval tool, spend possibly hours, and
still
may not get all the messages back.

Finally, MS decided to *hold people's hands* and do the backup for them.
IMHO, one of the good *big brother* things they have done.

This article explains why messages may be lost:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918069/en-us

And this explains the patch.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en

You could use a program like Disk Clean to empty the Recycle Bin, and
other
things, at startup, but that defeats the purpose of this patch.

Be greatful for small blessings.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Sandy J" wrote in message
...
After the latest updates I find that when I compact files that the
backup
files from all my OE folders are sent to the recycle bin... I'm
wondering
if there is a way to just have them deleted without going to the
recycle
bin?

Sandy