Strange thing happened today. I have many folders in OE to store emails. One
folder (which has about a dozen sub-folders) suddenly disappeared. I looked
into the Stored Folder in Drive C where all these folders are naturally
stored by the system and by a pleasant surprise I see all the .dbx folders,
including the name of the folder now gone as well as all the sub-folders.
How can I get these back to appear in OE? Any idea what happened? I know I
did not accidently delete the folder.
Thanks!

You /did/ open Deleted Items and check? Try these instructions for importing
single folders. If that doesn't work, keep reading.

See this for message recovery techniques:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

***********************************************

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 running XP/SP2, and are fully patched, then you should have a
backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first close OE and
locate the Message Store in Windows Explorer.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise, write
the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

In Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the missing, or empty, folder
and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted later once you have
successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact* same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

Open the Recycle bin and right click on the bak file for the folder in
question and click Restore. Open the Message Store back up and change the
file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close the Message Store and open OE. The
messages should now be back in the folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From 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 to help avoid this 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.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

And this good one click backup program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"IMAGEREP" wrote in message
...
Strange thing happened today. I have many folders in OE to store emails.
One
folder (which has about a dozen sub-folders) suddenly disappeared. I
looked
into the Stored Folder in Drive C where all these folders are naturally
stored by the system and by a pleasant surprise I see all the .dbx
folders,
including the name of the folder now gone as well as all the sub-folders.
How can I get these back to appear in OE? Any idea what happened? I know
I
did not accidently delete the folder.
Thanks!

The delete folder was the 1st thing I checked.
I compact folders all the time. Bet that's the cause as you described. I
try your instructions and let you know how it goes.
thanks

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

You /did/ open Deleted Items and check? Try these instructions for importing
single folders. If that doesn't work, keep reading.

See this for message recovery techniques:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

***********************************************

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 running XP/SP2, and are fully patched, then you should have a
backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first close OE and
locate the Message Store in Windows Explorer.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise, write
the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

In Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the missing, or empty, folder
and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted later once you have
successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact* same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

Open the Recycle bin and right click on the bak file for the folder in
question and click Restore. Open the Message Store back up and change the
file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close the Message Store and open OE. The
messages should now be back in the folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From 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 to help avoid this 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.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

And this good one click backup program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"IMAGEREP" wrote in message
...
Strange thing happened today. I have many folders in OE to store emails.
One
folder (which has about a dozen sub-folders) suddenly disappeared. I
looked
into the Stored Folder in Drive C where all these folders are naturally
stored by the system and by a pleasant surprise I see all the .dbx
folders,
including the name of the folder now gone as well as all the sub-folders.
How can I get these back to appear in OE? Any idea what happened? I know
I
did not accidently delete the folder.
Thanks!

All now corrected and back in business!
I followed the directions of creating new names in OE, going into the file
folder and deleting the newly created name, then renaming the old folder to
the new name.

THANKS!
PS must have occurred due to my new PCCILLIN Virus/Spam installation.
That's about when it disappeared.
Imagerep

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

You /did/ open Deleted Items and check? Try these instructions for importing
single folders. If that doesn't work, keep reading.

See this for message recovery techniques:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

***********************************************

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 running XP/SP2, and are fully patched, then you should have a
backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first close OE and
locate the Message Store in Windows Explorer.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise, write
the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

In Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the missing, or empty, folder
and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted later once you have
successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact* same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

Open the Recycle bin and right click on the bak file for the folder in
question and click Restore. Open the Message Store back up and change the
file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close the Message Store and open OE. The
messages should now be back in the folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From 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 to help avoid this 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.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

And this good one click backup program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"IMAGEREP" wrote in message
...
Strange thing happened today. I have many folders in OE to store emails.
One
folder (which has about a dozen sub-folders) suddenly disappeared. I
looked
into the Stored Folder in Drive C where all these folders are naturally
stored by the system and by a pleasant surprise I see all the .dbx
folders,
including the name of the folder now gone as well as all the sub-folders.
How can I get these back to appear in OE? Any idea what happened? I know
I
did not accidently delete the folder.
Thanks!

You're welcome & Glad it's fixed. OE and spam programs have not had a good
history of working well together. You'll want to disable e-mail scanning as
well. It is a redundant layer of protection an can cause a multitude of
problems.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"IMAGEREP" wrote in message
...
All now corrected and back in business!
I followed the directions of creating new names in OE, going into the file
folder and deleting the newly created name, then renaming the old folder
to
the new name.

THANKS!
PS must have occurred due to my new PCCILLIN Virus/Spam installation.
That's about when it disappeared.
Imagerep

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

You /did/ open Deleted Items and check? Try these instructions for
importing
single folders. If that doesn't work, keep reading.

See this for message recovery techniques:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

***********************************************

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 running XP/SP2, and are fully patched, then you should have a
backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first close OE and
locate the Message Store in Windows Explorer.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise,
write
the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under
Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

In Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the missing, or empty,
folder
and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted later once you have
successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact*
same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new
folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

Open the Recycle bin and right click on the bak file for the folder in
question and click Restore. Open the Message Store back up and change the
file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close the Message Store and open OE.
The
messages should now be back in the folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete
the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From 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 to help avoid this 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.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant
layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

And this good one click backup program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"IMAGEREP" wrote in message
...
Strange thing happened today. I have many folders in OE to store
emails.
One
folder (which has about a dozen sub-folders) suddenly disappeared. I
looked
into the Stored Folder in Drive C where all these folders are naturally
stored by the system and by a pleasant surprise I see all the .dbx
folders,
including the name of the folder now gone as well as all the
sub-folders.
How can I get these back to appear in OE? Any idea what happened? I
know
I
did not accidently delete the folder.
Thanks!

OK
Thanks again

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

You're welcome & Glad it's fixed. OE and spam programs have not had a good
history of working well together. You'll want to disable e-mail scanning as
well. It is a redundant layer of protection an can cause a multitude of
problems.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"IMAGEREP" wrote in message
...
All now corrected and back in business!
I followed the directions of creating new names in OE, going into the file
folder and deleting the newly created name, then renaming the old folder
to
the new name.

THANKS!
PS must have occurred due to my new PCCILLIN Virus/Spam installation.
That's about when it disappeared.
Imagerep

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

You /did/ open Deleted Items and check? Try these instructions for
importing
single folders. If that doesn't work, keep reading.

See this for message recovery techniques:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

***********************************************

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 running XP/SP2, and are fully patched, then you should have a
backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first close OE and
locate the Message Store in Windows Explorer.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise,
write
the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under
Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

In Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the missing, or empty,
folder
and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted later once you have
successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact*
same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new
folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

Open the Recycle bin and right click on the bak file for the folder in
question and click Restore. Open the Message Store back up and change the
file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close the Message Store and open OE.
The
messages should now be back in the folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete
the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From 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 to help avoid this 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.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant
layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

And this good one click backup program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"IMAGEREP" wrote in message
...
Strange thing happened today. I have many folders in OE to store
emails.
One
folder (which has about a dozen sub-folders) suddenly disappeared. I
looked
into the Stored Folder in Drive C where all these folders are naturally
stored by the system and by a pleasant surprise I see all the .dbx
folders,
including the name of the folder now gone as well as all the
sub-folders.
How can I get these back to appear in OE? Any idea what happened? I
know
I
did not accidently delete the folder.
Thanks!

Bruce:

New post here, but same topic so if it's okay I thought I'd post directly to
you. Like this inquiry, I also lost my email folders when we accidentally
stopped the compacting process. I went through the same exercise of finding
the folders in the recycle bin, restoring them, and renaming them from .bak
to .dbx. It seems to have only partially worked - my problem is that the
files restored and I can see the files in the message store, however, the
folders are not showing up when I open OE. Other folders in the same message
store do show up in OE just fine (the ones that did not have problems during
compacting). Any thoughts?

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

You're welcome & Glad it's fixed. OE and spam programs have not had a good
history of working well together. You'll want to disable e-mail scanning as
well. It is a redundant layer of protection an can cause a multitude of
problems.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"IMAGEREP" wrote in message
...
All now corrected and back in business!
I followed the directions of creating new names in OE, going into the file
folder and deleting the newly created name, then renaming the old folder
to
the new name.

THANKS!
PS must have occurred due to my new PCCILLIN Virus/Spam installation.
That's about when it disappeared.
Imagerep

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

You /did/ open Deleted Items and check? Try these instructions for
importing
single folders. If that doesn't work, keep reading.

See this for message recovery techniques:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

***********************************************

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 running XP/SP2, and are fully patched, then you should have a
backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first close OE and
locate the Message Store in Windows Explorer.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise,
write
the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under
Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

In Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the missing, or empty,
folder
and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted later once you have
successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact*
same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new
folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

Open the Recycle bin and right click on the bak file for the folder in
question and click Restore. Open the Message Store back up and change the
file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close the Message Store and open OE.
The
messages should now be back in the folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete
the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From 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 to help avoid this 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.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant
layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

And this good one click backup program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"IMAGEREP" wrote in message
...
Strange thing happened today. I have many folders in OE to store
emails.
One
folder (which has about a dozen sub-folders) suddenly disappeared. I
looked
into the Stored Folder in Drive C where all these folders are naturally
stored by the system and by a pleasant surprise I see all the .dbx
folders,
including the name of the folder now gone as well as all the
sub-folders.
How can I get these back to appear in OE? Any idea what happened? I
know
I
did not accidently delete the folder.
Thanks!

Just found in another posting where I also needed to restore the "folders"
file, and after doing that step I'm back in business. However, I had some
emails from the last month that I moved to some temporary folders while I was
trying to work all this out and now those files haven't been restored. Again
I can see the files in the message store list, but they are not showing up
when I open OE. It's not the end of the world if I can't get these back b/c
I'm just so happy to have all the others I feared I'd lost. But, if it's an
easy fix I'd like to know how.

Thank you in advance.

"Kate in Nashville" wrote:

Bruce:

New post here, but same topic so if it's okay I thought I'd post directly to
you. Like this inquiry, I also lost my email folders when we accidentally
stopped the compacting process. I went through the same exercise of finding
the folders in the recycle bin, restoring them, and renaming them from .bak
to .dbx. It seems to have only partially worked - my problem is that the
files restored and I can see the files in the message store, however, the
folders are not showing up when I open OE. Other folders in the same message
store do show up in OE just fine (the ones that did not have problems during
compacting). Any thoughts?

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

You're welcome & Glad it's fixed. OE and spam programs have not had a good
history of working well together. You'll want to disable e-mail scanning as
well. It is a redundant layer of protection an can cause a multitude of
problems.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"IMAGEREP" wrote in message
...
All now corrected and back in business!
I followed the directions of creating new names in OE, going into the file
folder and deleting the newly created name, then renaming the old folder
to
the new name.

THANKS!
PS must have occurred due to my new PCCILLIN Virus/Spam installation.
That's about when it disappeared.
Imagerep

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

You /did/ open Deleted Items and check? Try these instructions for
importing
single folders. If that doesn't work, keep reading.

See this for message recovery techniques:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

***********************************************

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 running XP/SP2, and are fully patched, then you should have a
backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first close OE and
locate the Message Store in Windows Explorer.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise,
write
the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under
Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

In Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the missing, or empty,
folder
and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted later once you have
successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact*
same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new
folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

Open the Recycle bin and right click on the bak file for the folder in
question and click Restore. Open the Message Store back up and change the
file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close the Message Store and open OE.
The
messages should now be back in the folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete
the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From 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 to help avoid this 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.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant
layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

And backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

And this good one click backup program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

"IMAGEREP" wrote in message
...
Strange thing happened today. I have many folders in OE to store
emails.
One
folder (which has about a dozen sub-folders) suddenly disappeared. I
looked
into the Stored Folder in Drive C where all these folders are naturally
stored by the system and by a pleasant surprise I see all the .dbx
folders,
including the name of the folder now gone as well as all the
sub-folders.
How can I get these back to appear in OE? Any idea what happened? I
know
I
did not accidently delete the folder.
Thanks!