Already told him all about that, thanks Bruce.

--
Peter
Toronto, Canada
XP Home SP2 Fully Updated
P4 HT @ 3.0ghz, 360gb HDD, 2.0gb DDR.
"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
Glad to hear it. Make sure he does some cleanup.

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.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually while
working *offline* and do it often.

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no
folders are open. Then: FileWork Offline (or double click Working Online
in the Status Bar). FileFolderCompact all folders. Don't touch anything
until the compacting is completed.

In ToolsOptionsMaintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background and
leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Peter" ex-brit AT rogers DOT com wrote in message
...
Just got a phone call from the person...
...his Inbox has miraculously reappeared.

Don't ask!!

--
Peter
Toronto, Canada
XP Home SP2 Fully Updated
P4 HT @ 3.0ghz, 360gb HDD, 2.0gb DDR.
"Peter" ex-brit AT rogers DOT com wrote in message
...
Thanks for all the tips guys...

--
Peter
Toronto, Canada
XP Home SP2 Fully Updated
P4 HT @ 3.0ghz, 360gb HDD, 2.0gb DDR.
"PA Bear" wrote in message
...
Why it happens:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...s.htm#mailgone

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx

Recovering data: http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DBXtract
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx

DBXtend (additional functionality)
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtend/Default.aspx

DBXpress (faster, more powerful, with even greater functionality)
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

OEX (OE Enhancement Program)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEX/Default.aspx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Avoid Such Corruption in Futu

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to
local folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Disable Background Compacting [N/A in SP2] and frequently perform a
manual compact of all OE folders while "working offline". More at
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/maintain.htm.

- WinXP SP2 only: Do not shut down your machine while Windows is
automatically compacting your message store.

- Your anti-virus application's email scanning feature can also cause
such corruption. Disable it. It provides no additional protection.

--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Shell/User, Security), Aumha.org VSOP, DTS-L.org

Peter wrote:
A friend has this problem...his OE6 inbox has completely vanished.
I tried sfc /scannow, repair installation of XP, but not sure how to
go
about using the Add/Remove Windows option to repair OE6. I tried it
and
it merely said installed OK and no repair option given. Still no
inbox.
I did locate an inbox.dbx somewhere in the machine.
Any suggestions anyone?