Several hours ago, I exited Oulook Express and the application tried to
Compact the email database. For some reason, the compact process stopped and
froze. When I did a control alt delete, it showed comapct process not
responding. I shut down my computer using the off button. The computer
rebooted with a warning about error in NTSF (or something like that).
Windows took about 3-5 min to repair or whatever it was doing. I got back to
my desktop, opened my Outlook Express Inbox and all my Inbox emails were
gone. My sent and deleted emails were still there. I called Earthlink for
Tech Support. They looked for dbx files etc etc and told me that my
application is corrupt and that I would have to reinstall Outlook Express.
They also mentioned that my dbx files were not corrupt. Luckily I had backed
up my emails to a folder on my desktop in May 2006. My question is can I
restore my emails that I lost from May to Present? Overall, how do I fix
this problem. I REALLY NEED MY EMAILS BETWEEN MAY-SEP 2006. Thanks for your
help

For the messages you did not have backed up, please read *all* of this
carefully.

The two most common reasons for what you describe is disruption of the
compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), or 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~

"BladeRunner" wrote in message
...
Several hours ago, I exited Oulook Express and the application tried to
Compact the email database. For some reason, the compact process stopped
and
froze. When I did a control alt delete, it showed comapct process not
responding. I shut down my computer using the off button. The computer
rebooted with a warning about error in NTSF (or something like that).
Windows took about 3-5 min to repair or whatever it was doing. I got back
to
my desktop, opened my Outlook Express Inbox and all my Inbox emails were
gone. My sent and deleted emails were still there. I called Earthlink
for
Tech Support. They looked for dbx files etc etc and told me that my
application is corrupt and that I would have to reinstall Outlook Express.
They also mentioned that my dbx files were not corrupt. Luckily I had
backed
up my emails to a folder on my desktop in May 2006. My question is can I
restore my emails that I lost from May to Present? Overall, how do I fix
this problem. I REALLY NEED MY EMAILS BETWEEN MAY-SEP 2006. Thanks for
your
help

For the future see point 2 he www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 There is a
patch for the compaction problem.

See also point 4 on that page for message recovery techniques. I think your
only chance at this point is DBXpress, as the messages are no longer likely
to be in the file and you need to see if you can get them off the hard drive
itself.

steve

"BladeRunner" wrote in message
...
Several hours ago, I exited Oulook Express and the application tried to
Compact the email database. For some reason, the compact process stopped
and
froze. When I did a control alt delete, it showed comapct process not
responding. I shut down my computer using the off button. The computer
rebooted with a warning about error in NTSF (or something like that).
Windows took about 3-5 min to repair or whatever it was doing. I got back
to
my desktop, opened my Outlook Express Inbox and all my Inbox emails were
gone. My sent and deleted emails were still there. I called Earthlink
for
Tech Support. They looked for dbx files etc etc and told me that my
application is corrupt and that I would have to reinstall Outlook Express.
They also mentioned that my dbx files were not corrupt. Luckily I had
backed
up my emails to a folder on my desktop in May 2006. My question is can I
restore my emails that I lost from May to Present? Overall, how do I fix
this problem. I REALLY NEED MY EMAILS BETWEEN MAY-SEP 2006. Thanks for
your
help

good job

"BladeRunner" wrote in message
...
Several hours ago, I exited Oulook Express and the application tried to
Compact the email database. For some reason, the compact process stopped
and
froze. When I did a control alt delete, it showed comapct process not
responding. I shut down my computer using the off button. The computer
rebooted with a warning about error in NTSF (or something like that).
Windows took about 3-5 min to repair or whatever it was doing. I got back
to
my desktop, opened my Outlook Express Inbox and all my Inbox emails were
gone. My sent and deleted emails were still there. I called Earthlink
for
Tech Support. They looked for dbx files etc etc and told me that my
application is corrupt and that I would have to reinstall Outlook Express.
They also mentioned that my dbx files were not corrupt. Luckily I had
backed
up my emails to a folder on my desktop in May 2006. My question is can I
restore my emails that I lost from May to Present? Overall, how do I fix
this problem. I REALLY NEED MY EMAILS BETWEEN MAY-SEP 2006. Thanks for
your
help

"BladeRunner" ëúá
...
Several hours ago, I exited Oulook Express and the application tried to
Compact the email database. For some reason, the compact process stopped
and
froze. When I did a control alt delete, it showed comapct process not
responding. I shut down my computer using the off button. The computer
rebooted with a warning about error in NTSF (or something like that).
Windows took about 3-5 min to repair or whatever it was doing. I got back
to
my desktop, opened my Outlook Express Inbox and all my Inbox emails were
gone. My sent and deleted emails were still there. I called Earthlink
for
Tech Support. They looked for dbx files etc etc and told me that my
application is corrupt and that I would have to reinstall Outlook Express.
They also mentioned that my dbx files were not corrupt. Luckily I had
backed
up my emails to a folder on my desktop in May 2006. My question is can I
restore my emails that I lost from May to Present? Overall, how do I fix
this problem. I REALLY NEED MY EMAILS BETWEEN MAY-SEP 2006. Thanks for
your
help