Hello there,

I wonder if you can help me?
Yesterday (Feb 9th 2006), something very strange happened to Outlook
Express.
I closed OE, and it started 'compacting' mode - automatically - as it
does every once in a while.
I didn't disturb it - I walked away from the PC, as it seemed like it
was going to take more than a few minutes. As far as I know, nothing
interupted it.
Later, when I re-opened OE, all my INBOX emails from June 2005 - Jan
2006 (read and unread) had disappeared.

Strangely, I still have ALL my INBOX emails dating from 1999 - June
2005, then continuing from Jan 2006 up to today. The Deleted Items,
Sent and all other folders are exactly as they were. They show all
emails from 1999-2006. I clicked the obvious ' Show all messages'.
Nothing changed.

Do you know what's happened?
Can they be "un-compacted" and returned to the Inbox?
Why those 7 months and not years of other emails?

I do have sub folders for certain types of emails.
But, unfortunately for me, all my 'important emails' are kept in my
Inbox.

I'm running XP Pro inc SP1 & SP2, Avast Antivirus & Windows XP
Firewall.
Only user, no different Identities. I have changed no settings in OE or
anywhere else. And, no, I didn't have 'Keep a copy on server' ticked
either - much to my dismay (now).
I checked the Identities folder in Local Settiings, and the Inbox .dbx
file is still there (over 800MB). I can't be sure, but I thought it was
previously bigger than that. There is no other inbox dbx file i.e.
Inbox(1).dbx, inbox(2),dbx etc. I searched for .drt file too -
Nothing.

The last time I did a complete back-up of OE was Feb 2005 - So, that is
not going to help.
From reading various forums, it seems I shouldn't have let OE get so
'bloated'.
I back-up my pc and do a fresh install of everything once a year, and
have never had a problem with OE in the last 6 years, up until now.

I haven't yet tried DBXExtract or DBXpress.
Will it find missing Inbox emails in that 7 months period? Or, will it
literally display thousands of emails (including deleted rubbish) from
the last year?
I'd be grateful if you could assist me in any way.

Many thanks,
Damien

The two things that cause mail loss during compacting, is a power change,
(doing anything before it is completed), which you apparently did not do.
The second reason is bloated folders. Read on.

With XP/SP2, Outlook Express prompts you to compact your folders after 100
closings which you should do. Lost mail is usually caused by disrupting the
compacting process, (such as turning off the computer before it has
finished), or having very bloated folders.

When you see the compact option, and select OK, and never touch anything
until
it has completed. A power change can cause you to lose mail also. If you
checked the Do not show me this again, OE will compact without you knowing.
If this is the case, post back and I'll tell you how to replace the prompt.

Why Mail Disappears:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone

About File Corruption:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx

Recovery tool, (if the messages are still there):

DBXpress is the best chance of recovery when run in disk mode:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

DBXpress may find messages on the HDD that are not obvious in the dbx files.

And this is a very good option for the futu

Steve Cochran has added a button in his new version of OE Tool that will not
only Compact All Folders, but at the same time, resets the "Compact Check
Count" to zero whenever you compact manually. You will see the prompt again
if you do not compact before 100 closings.

http://www.oehelp.com/OETool/

It is still advised to check Work Offline before you compact.

A general warning to avoid losing mail 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.

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~

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello there,

I wonder if you can help me?
Yesterday (Feb 9th 2006), something very strange happened to Outlook
Express.
I closed OE, and it started 'compacting' mode - automatically - as it
does every once in a while.
I didn't disturb it - I walked away from the PC, as it seemed like it
was going to take more than a few minutes. As far as I know, nothing
interupted it.
Later, when I re-opened OE, all my INBOX emails from June 2005 - Jan
2006 (read and unread) had disappeared.

Strangely, I still have ALL my INBOX emails dating from 1999 - June
2005, then continuing from Jan 2006 up to today. The Deleted Items,
Sent and all other folders are exactly as they were. They show all
emails from 1999-2006. I clicked the obvious ' Show all messages'.
Nothing changed.

Do you know what's happened?
Can they be "un-compacted" and returned to the Inbox?
Why those 7 months and not years of other emails?

I do have sub folders for certain types of emails.
But, unfortunately for me, all my 'important emails' are kept in my
Inbox.

I'm running XP Pro inc SP1 & SP2, Avast Antivirus & Windows XP
Firewall.
Only user, no different Identities. I have changed no settings in OE or
anywhere else. And, no, I didn't have 'Keep a copy on server' ticked
either - much to my dismay (now).
I checked the Identities folder in Local Settiings, and the Inbox .dbx
file is still there (over 800MB). I can't be sure, but I thought it was
previously bigger than that. There is no other inbox dbx file i.e.
Inbox(1).dbx, inbox(2),dbx etc. I searched for .drt file too -
Nothing.

The last time I did a complete back-up of OE was Feb 2005 - So, that is
not going to help.
From reading various forums, it seems I shouldn't have let OE get so
'bloated'.
I back-up my pc and do a fresh install of everything once a year, and
have never had a problem with OE in the last 6 years, up until now.

I haven't yet tried DBXExtract or DBXpress.
Will it find missing Inbox emails in that 7 months period? Or, will it
literally display thousands of emails (including deleted rubbish) from
the last year?
I'd be grateful if you could assist me in any way.

Many thanks,
Damien

wrote in message oups.com...
| Hello there,
|
| I wonder if you can help me?
| Yesterday (Feb 9th 2006), something very strange happened to Outlook
| Express.
snip

Email Recovery & Repair for Outlook Express Files
http://www.scandbx.com/

|

That's not going to work. The messages are no longer in the files.

Only DBXpress can possibly get them now.

steve

"Touch Base" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
oups.com...
| Hello there,
|
| I wonder if you can help me?
| Yesterday (Feb 9th 2006), something very strange happened to Outlook
| Express.
snip

Email Recovery & Repair for Outlook Express Files
http://www.scandbx.com/

|

Its quite likely that all those messages are gone from the files and no file
recovery system will get them back.

The only alternative is DBXpress and its extract from disk mode. But it has
no idea where those messages came from, and if I put a filter in the
extraction process that checked every date of every message, then it would
take even longer that it does now.

Now if the messages still happen to be on the disk clusters, but no longer
in files, which is often the case in the circumstances you describe, then
DBXpress can recovery the messages. But if those disk clusters have been
overwritten, then nothing can recovery them (unless you want to read the
hard drive under a scanning electron microscope and try and discover what
was once there). So there's no guarantee that DBXpress will get anything,
but it has been very successful for many.

What you get is everything DBXpress could find on the hard drive that
resembles a message. Once you get (sometimes tens of thousands) those eml
files. Then you drag them back into OE and then you can use OE and Edit |
Find to sort by date or whatever else.

cheers,

steve

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello there,

I wonder if you can help me?
Yesterday (Feb 9th 2006), something very strange happened to Outlook
Express.
I closed OE, and it started 'compacting' mode - automatically - as it
does every once in a while.
I didn't disturb it - I walked away from the PC, as it seemed like it
was going to take more than a few minutes. As far as I know, nothing
interupted it.
Later, when I re-opened OE, all my INBOX emails from June 2005 - Jan
2006 (read and unread) had disappeared.

Strangely, I still have ALL my INBOX emails dating from 1999 - June
2005, then continuing from Jan 2006 up to today. The Deleted Items,
Sent and all other folders are exactly as they were. They show all
emails from 1999-2006. I clicked the obvious ' Show all messages'.
Nothing changed.

Do you know what's happened?
Can they be "un-compacted" and returned to the Inbox?
Why those 7 months and not years of other emails?

I do have sub folders for certain types of emails.
But, unfortunately for me, all my 'important emails' are kept in my
Inbox.

I'm running XP Pro inc SP1 & SP2, Avast Antivirus & Windows XP
Firewall.
Only user, no different Identities. I have changed no settings in OE or
anywhere else. And, no, I didn't have 'Keep a copy on server' ticked
either - much to my dismay (now).
I checked the Identities folder in Local Settiings, and the Inbox .dbx
file is still there (over 800MB). I can't be sure, but I thought it was
previously bigger than that. There is no other inbox dbx file i.e.
Inbox(1).dbx, inbox(2),dbx etc. I searched for .drt file too -
Nothing.

The last time I did a complete back-up of OE was Feb 2005 - So, that is
not going to help.
From reading various forums, it seems I shouldn't have let OE get so
'bloated'.
I back-up my pc and do a fresh install of everything once a year, and
have never had a problem with OE in the last 6 years, up until now.

I haven't yet tried DBXExtract or DBXpress.
Will it find missing Inbox emails in that 7 months period? Or, will it
literally display thousands of emails (including deleted rubbish) from
the last year?
I'd be grateful if you could assist me in any way.

Many thanks,
Damien