Microsoft Outlook email - HELP...Elves must have messed up my OE during the night

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HELP...Elves must have messed up my OE during the night

I have XP Pro, IE 6.+ w. SP2, and all MS updates are automatic; AVG, Zone
Alarm, DSL 1000-something with a internal modem w. router; AdAware, all
run 2-3X/week, plus HouseCall twice a month. Never had intrusions,
Trojan, Virus, etc. New HP Invent DeskTop, with all new parts in CPU
(warranty issue). All's been fine. As a blind-user, I use ZoomText, and
other programs (Dragon, Kurzweil, etc) but not auto-load...only used
ZoomText yesterday. I also have Skype and Calnique but they are not
auto-loaded--they were not running yesterday. However, I noticed that my
OE was running slowly yesterday, and twice compacted "All Folders," which
is usually unnecessary.

(Note: When I was having problems with my "Power Supply" button [a
faulty one had come with the new computer], I once lost all of my OE,
and switched identities, and brought everything back in by "Import
Messages" /Address Book, BUT there is now no 2nd Id.

I have backed up everything on thumb discs (Scandisk), as of Dec 1st
but not lately...because they were copying my HD folders backward, and I
was trying to figure out what to do about changing the order--its a
challenge using a Screen Reader. *smile*

My IE evidences all the URLs I opened yesterday, as well. When I shut
down, I closed IE, and OE, turned off ZoomText, then Start, Turn
Computer Off...everything went well. After shut down, I turned off my
power supply/surge protector. The speakers and scanner are on a separate
electrical outlet.

I just turned on power supply, then CPU, and all of my OE folders are
gone (contents all right in individual sub-folders), SENT mail has
disappeared, and my NGs were gone.

I'm not even sure if I found my MS XP NG or not...Malke was one of our
"helpers" on the prior MS-XP Pro NG.

Lastly, all the Message Rules are x-ed out with RED Xs. My other identity is
also gone. Found them in my Trash! Restored them
but they're not back in my OE! What next? They are not back in my OE
Folders, etc.
What could have happened? There was no power to computer since I signed off
last night, and turned off surge suppressor, and no electrical or
phone problems since, either. I had run AdAware yesterday...only 4 items
that were of no consequence
("not serious") were found. Also, yesterday I checked my Zone Alarm, and it
indicated my AVG was not detected, but its evident that the URL for Grisoft
has been approved. Strange. So, I ran my AVG, then TrendMicro...nothing
amiss.

When someone has the time, would you please advise me?

Thank you very much.

PS HELP...Elves must have messed up my OE during the night

I've checked my Store Folder, and the messages are there, but I'm afraid to
bring them back in for fear of duplicating those that were dumped out of
primary folders (those in sub-folders under Local Folders). I compact often.
And, yes, it was running slowly yesterday, and I had a shut down while
composing an e-mail (chagrined: my wheelchair pulled out surge protector
plug from wall), but I'm fairly certain the folders were missing, and the
Message Rules were all X'ed out by then.

PS HELP...Elves must have messed up my OE during the night

Okay, this should be fun. G

I think all your messages are likely there, but you are going to have to do
a bit of searching and stuff to get them back.

OE most likely lost the principal Identity you were using, which is why the
message rules are toast, and can't find the folders. Since you have bak
files in the Recycle bin, then you likely can recover the messages.

First thing to do is to make sure you have AVG not set to scan email. If it
is, then uninstall it and reinstall it with that option disabled.

Then in OE go to File | Identities and set up a new Identity so you can
start over. Switch to that Identity and set up your mail and news accounts.
Then close OE.

Now its going to get a bit tricky. First make sure you can see dbx files by
going to Tools | Folder Options | View in Windows Explorer and then uncheck
the option to hide extensions for known file types and also enable showing
hidden files and folders. That should let you find dbx files. Then run a
search of the entire drive for *.dbx (and use the Advanced Search Options to
include searching for hidden files), and you should have at least 2
directories (maybe more), one of which is the current directory for the new
Identity you just made (check the file dates), and the other will the the
directory of the lost messages, and OE may have set up another directory as
well, so you can check the file names and sizes as well to determine where
the lost messages are.

Once you find those directories, then copy all the files in the "lost"
message directory to another for backup purposes. Then go to the Recycle
bin and restore the bak files. This should put the old dbx files (the ones
prior to the compaction start) into that "lost" message directory. See if
that happens. If so, then open OE and in the new Identity go to File |
Import | Messages and point to the "lost" message directory.

See if that will then import the old messages. If it doesn't, then you can
try manually importing the dbx files via the method in the last paragraph
under OE on this page: www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

If you have a backup of the registry keys for OE, you can restore that to
attempt to get the message rules back, but you'd have to edit the Identity
number in the backed up file to match that of the new identity. Otherwise
you'll just have to set up the rules again.

Anyway, see if that helps recover them.

cheers,

steve

"Pappion" wrote in message
...
I've checked my Store Folder, and the messages are there, but I'm afraid
to bring them back in for fear of duplicating those that were dumped out
of primary folders (those in sub-folders under Local Folders). I compact
often. And, yes, it was running slowly yesterday, and I had a shut down
while composing an e-mail (chagrined: my wheelchair pulled out surge
protector plug from wall), but I'm fairly certain the folders were
missing, and the Message Rules were all X'ed out by then.

PS HELP...Elves must have messed up my OE during the night

Thank YOU! Everything is as you recommended, including my AVG not scanning
outgoing emails. I now only have to create the new ID, and go from there.
The "trashed" mail, etc. was both .dbx and .wab, but my Address Book appears
all right. Hummmm.

I'll soon be a master at this. I learned a great deal about OE, Compressing
files, and what not to do when compressing, or letting OE compress in the
background, and also the importance of compressing ALL folders, after
deleting emails, and news posts. Sheesh, I had no idea.

Thank you IMMENSELY! Happy, peace-filled New Year

Steve-- HELP...Elves must have messed up my OE during the night

I just looked at my Desktop and my Trash has all the files and folders back
in it, again. I hit Restore yesterday, and those in there now are dated
today. What gives, I've run nothing.

When I delete my Deleted Folder, or other messages, or News posts, I do it
offline, and then I also Compress All Folders, off line. My AVG loaded
updates, but did not scan yet, and its not programmed to scan outgoing
emails.

At this point, I'm afraid to budge.

Thank you x 12~

Steve-- HELP...Elves must have messed up my OE during the night

Sheesh, I got them all back, with the help of MS online, and then went offline, deleted all duplicates, and cleaned up other messages, and NG posts, and then tried to Compact All Folders, but it wouldn't do all---window reported OE was being used by another program!

So, I compacted each folder, separately, went online, Refreshed Desk Top, and there were all the msgs in the Recycle Bin AGAIN! Is this what you're referring to as "copying" them?

I've never gone offline to compact or delete msgs before reading this recently. But, also never lost anything, either. LOL

MS tech said my v. of OE does not compact folders "behind" the scenes, so I'm grateful for that.

So, now shall I just delete what's in the Recycle Bin??? I'm a wreck and one-half...and blind to boot!

Thank YOU!

Steve-- HELP...Elves must have messed up my OE during the night

YES! You are right... I emptied the Recycle Bin, then went into OE, went off line, and compressed All Folders, and it went right along, perfectly, and the Recycle Bin is full of the same messages/posts, again! Sheesh, thank you. Why didn't it ever do that before? Oh were they put on my HD in the MS folder? I'd better check, before I Crash! LOL (I'm only using 30% but with this going on that will rapidly change).

HAPPY NEW YEAR
"Pappion" wrote in message ...
Sheesh, I got them all back, with the help of MS online, and then went offline, deleted all duplicates, and cleaned up other messages, and NG posts, and then tried to Compact All Folders, but it wouldn't do all---window reported OE was being used by another program!

So, I compacted each folder, separately, went online, Refreshed Desk Top, and there were all the msgs in the Recycle Bin AGAIN! Is this what you're referring to as "copying" them?

I've never gone offline to compact or delete msgs before reading this recently. But, also never lost anything, either. LOL

MS tech said my v. of OE does not compact folders "behind" the scenes, so I'm grateful for that.

So, now shall I just delete what's in the Recycle Bin??? I'm a wreck and one-half...and blind to boot!

Thank YOU!

Steve-- HELP...Elves must have messed up my OE during the night

I'm glad you got the stuff back.

As you are finding out, compaction now results in the files first being
copied to the Recycle Bin, so if the compaction fails, then the user can
restore them to the message store directory.

cheers,

steve

"Pappion" wrote in message
...
I just looked at my Desktop and my Trash has all the files and folders back
in it, again. I hit Restore yesterday, and those in there now are dated
today. What gives, I've run nothing.

When I delete my Deleted Folder, or other messages, or News posts, I do it
offline, and then I also Compress All Folders, off line. My AVG loaded
updates, but did not scan yet, and its not programmed to scan outgoing
emails.

At this point, I'm afraid to budge.

Thank you x 12~