OE6 crashed while compacting my folders.
After restarting, I found that:
a) 942 .dbx files were truncated to the empty size (59 or 137 KB)
b) 176 .dbx files remained the same size, but were trashed to all-00 hex bytes
c) 385 .dbx files survived OK

OE6 treats both (a) and (b) folders as having 0 messages.

I have since found KB918069/918766. Comparing my DLL versions, I see that I
did _not_ have this update, on either of my 2 PCs. Hence, it must be
something that Windows Update doesn't automatically install. (I've since
installed it, but that's too late to help.)

So OE6 lost 75% of my e-mail folders, dating back 12 years.
How can I restore these .dbx files?
--
Eric

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
(This is the patch you just downloaded).

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~

"Eric Wang" wrote in message
...
OE6 crashed while compacting my folders.
After restarting, I found that:
a) 942 .dbx files were truncated to the empty size (59 or 137 KB)
b) 176 .dbx files remained the same size, but were trashed to all-00 hex
bytes
c) 385 .dbx files survived OK

OE6 treats both (a) and (b) folders as having 0 messages.

I have since found KB918069/918766. Comparing my DLL versions, I see that
I
did _not_ have this update, on either of my 2 PCs. Hence, it must be
something that Windows Update doesn't automatically install. (I've since
installed it, but that's too late to help.)

So OE6 lost 75% of my e-mail folders, dating back 12 years.
How can I restore these .dbx files?
--
Eric

"Eric Wang" wrote in message
...
OE6 crashed while compacting my folders.
After restarting, I found that:
a) 942 .dbx files were truncated to the empty size (59 or 137 KB)
b) 176 .dbx files remained the same size, but were trashed to all-00 hex
bytes
c) 385 .dbx files survived OK

OE6 treats both (a) and (b) folders as having 0 messages.

I have since found KB918069/918766. Comparing my DLL versions, I see that
I
did _not_ have this update, on either of my 2 PCs. Hence, it must be
something that Windows Update doesn't automatically install. (I've since
installed it, but that's too late to help.)

So OE6 lost 75% of my e-mail folders, dating back 12 years.
How can I restore these .dbx files?
--
Eric

The only thing I know with any hope of restoring them is DBXpress
(www.oehelp.com). Run in disk mode it will search the entire hard drive for
orphaned messages. You want to use it as soon as possible so that as few
messages get overwritten as possible. It will even recover messages from a
formatted drive, but it won't recover most attachments if any.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Answer in newsgroup. Don't send mail.

"Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM" wrote in message
...
"Eric Wang" wrote in message
...
OE6 crashed while compacting my folders.
After restarting, I found that:
a) 942 .dbx files were truncated to the empty size (59 or 137 KB)
b) 176 .dbx files remained the same size, but were trashed to all-00 hex
bytes
c) 385 .dbx files survived OK

OE6 treats both (a) and (b) folders as having 0 messages.

I have since found KB918069/918766. Comparing my DLL versions, I see
that I
did _not_ have this update, on either of my 2 PCs. Hence, it must be
something that Windows Update doesn't automatically install. (I've since
installed it, but that's too late to help.)

So OE6 lost 75% of my e-mail folders, dating back 12 years.
How can I restore these .dbx files?
--
Eric

The only thing I know with any hope of restoring them is DBXpress
(www.oehelp.com). Run in disk mode it will search the entire hard drive
for orphaned messages. You want to use it as soon as possible so that as
few messages get overwritten as possible. It will even recover messages
from a formatted drive, but it won't recover most attachments if any.


Just a clarification. DBXpress (and DBXtract) will recover messages in
their entirety including attachments.

If the messages were manually deleted from the deleted items folder or they
were Shift-Deleted from another folder, then those messages can also be
recovered (using the Recover Mode feature of DBXpress), but they will be
missing 4 bytes for every 512 byte segment of the message, so the message
will not be completely recoverable and in this case attachments will not be
recoverable.

But if the messages were just lost or accidentally deleted via file
deletion, then they are completely recoverable (including attachments) with
the extract from disk feature of DBXpress.

Your last sentence there seemed to indicate otherwise.

cheers,

steve



--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Answer in newsgroup. Don't send mail.

I bought DBXpress. Money well spent.
It recovered 102,250 e-mails in 18.5 hours.
I hope that some of these are the ones I lost.

Glad to hear it!

If those weren't some of the lost ones, then I think you are out of luck
otherwise. Have fun sorting.

cheers,

steve

"Eric Wang" wrote in message
news
I bought DBXpress. Money well spent.
It recovered 102,250 e-mails in 18.5 hours.
I hope that some of these are the ones I lost.