Hello, I had a new h/d installed, I run Norton, use Outlook Express on
Windows Xp. Yesterday, when I retreived my settings from Freeserve, I noticed
that some of my xmas mail was missing from Outlook Express. I carried on
regardless and made several new files-up,dragged'n'dropped from Inbox to
named files, last night I went to check mail, and one of the files with 20
odd e-mails was missing, I have looked everywhere that I can think of, even
on freeserve site for the missing file, has anyone any ideas of retreiving
file or is it lost forever?
Thank you from Saffie

First, check the size of the dbx files for each folder to see if they are
large enough to contain messages. (Over at least 100kb).

ToolsOptionsMaintenanceStore 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 StartRunCtrl+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 WindowsXP & 2K &3K, the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by default
marked as hidden. To view these files in Explorer, you must enable
Show Hidden Files and Folders under StartControl PanelFolder
OptionsView.

If it appears that the messages are still there, use one of these tools to
retrieve them:

DBXtract: {Cost: $5.00}
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx

DBXpress: {$24.95, but much faster for large files}
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

***After*** you retrieve your messages, take heed of this:

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.

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}.

And, get rid of Norton.

I would recommend AVG Free:
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5
or:
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/40/lng/ww

When prompted, choose Custom Installation and *uncheck* e-mail scanning when
you see the option.

Norton (and McAfee) products are not Outlook Express friendly, and I don't
know of any OE-MVP that would recommend using them.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"saffie" wrote in message
...
Hello, I had a new h/d installed, I run Norton, use Outlook Express on
Windows Xp. Yesterday, when I retreived my settings from Freeserve, I
noticed
that some of my xmas mail was missing from Outlook Express. I carried on
regardless and made several new files-up,dragged'n'dropped from Inbox to
named files, last night I went to check mail, and one of the files with 20
odd e-mails was missing, I have looked everywhere that I can think of,
even
on freeserve site for the missing file, has anyone any ideas of retreiving
file or is it lost forever?
Thank you from Saffie

"saffie" wrote in message

Hello, I had a new h/d installed, I run Norton, use Outlook Express
on Windows Xp. Yesterday, when I retreived my settings from
Freeserve, I noticed that some of my xmas mail was missing from
Outlook Express. I carried on regardless and made several new
files-up,dragged'n'dropped from Inbox to named files, last night I
went to check mail, and one of the files with 20 odd e-mails was
missing, I have looked everywhere that I can think of, even on
freeserve site for the missing file, has anyone any ideas of
retreiving file or is it lost forever?
Thank you from Saffie

Also make sure that email scanning is turned off in Norton. It provides no
added protection. After doing so it may be necessary to reset the server
names in OE.

The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express
Published: November 18, 2004
By Tom Koch
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx

Email scanning slows down Sending and Receiving, sometimes enough that OE
times out. Since some of the received messages have large (often virus)
attachments, which exasperates the problem.
Some Comcast users have found it necessary to totally uninstall Norton and
switch to the free AVG with mail scanning off. Norton invented email
scanning and here's what they say:

"Disabling Email Scanning does not leave you unprotected against viruses
that
are distributed as email attachments. Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect scans
incoming files as they are saved to your hard drive, including email and
email attachments. Email Scanning is just another layer on top of this. To
make sure that Auto-Protect is providing the maximum protection, keep
Auto-Protect enabled and run LiveUpdate regularly to ensure that you have
the most recent virus definitions."
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...256c7500723cf0

"...your computer is protected if Auto-Protect is enabled. Auto-Protect
scans any incoming files, including email attachments, when the files are
saved to your hard drive."
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...01100907323806

"NAV provides multiple layers of protection. Email scanning is just one of
those layers. Even if you are not running Email Scanning, your computer is
protected against viruses that are distributed as email attachments by NAV
Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect will scan any incoming files, including email
attachments, as they are saved to your hard drive. To make sure that
Auto-Protect is providing the maximum protection, keep Auto-Protect enabled
and run LiveUpdate regularly to ensure that you have the most recent virus
definitions."
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...= bar_sch_nam

See also
http://help.expedient.com/mailnews/n...ntivirus.shtml

So Symantec used to say this often and clearly. The newer stuff doesn't
have the statement included as it was considered an embarrassment. If you
know anyone who programs for Norton try to get them to talk about it.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/