Last week I shut down my PC and on reopening discovered that two additional
OE identities and all their folders had vanished, along with a lot of other
e-mail and internet settings. All files were as normal. I had to create
from scratch another OE identity for one of my e-mail accounts.
Today I restarted again and found that my old identities and settings had
reappeared and but the new e-mail identity in use for a week had gone! I
suspect that for reasons unknown my PC has created another identity/
I have located in Windows/application data/identities both identities but
cannot figure out how to import the folders I need from the last week. I
have tried the import tool but it can't find the folder. I have also tried
renaming the new inbox and backing it up in My Documents but the import tool
won't recognise that either.
I am running OE 6 on Win98SE.
Any help gratefully received.

If you do not compact your message store folder often, the DBX files
containing the messages will become corrupted and unreadable at which time
they will have new, empty ones created. For more on why this happens, see
this article:

The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pr...8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.



"Phil" wrote in message
...
Last week I shut down my PC and on reopening discovered that two
additional
OE identities and all their folders had vanished, along with a lot of
other
e-mail and internet settings. All files were as normal. I had to create
from scratch another OE identity for one of my e-mail accounts.
Today I restarted again and found that my old identities and settings had
reappeared and but the new e-mail identity in use for a week had gone! I
suspect that for reasons unknown my PC has created another identity/
I have located in Windows/application data/identities both identities but
cannot figure out how to import the folders I need from the last week. I
have tried the import tool but it can't find the folder. I have also
tried
renaming the new inbox and backing it up in My Documents but the import
tool
won't recognise that either.
I am running OE 6 on Win98SE.
Any help gratefully received.

Thank you. I understand the advice about folder maintenance and compacting.
However, this problem was not limited to OE - my PC seemed to have created an
entirely new identity (not just an OE identity) with default settings in many
programmes, including both IE and firefox and how files and windows are
viewed, although data itself was not affected. Morevover, all my original
e-mail folders are intact. As stated, I have located the store of new
folders opened last week (which are still very small) but cannot import them
to my original identity (Neither do I have any idea how to switch to the
mystery PC identity). There is no evidence that the e-mail folders are
corrupted. I have read about DBextract, but does this work with Win 98SE?

"Jim Pickering" wrote:

If you do not compact your message store folder often, the DBX files
containing the messages will become corrupted and unreadable at which time
they will have new, empty ones created. For more on why this happens, see
this article:

The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pr...8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.



"Phil" wrote in message
...
Last week I shut down my PC and on reopening discovered that two
additional
OE identities and all their folders had vanished, along with a lot of
other
e-mail and internet settings. All files were as normal. I had to create
from scratch another OE identity for one of my e-mail accounts.
Today I restarted again and found that my old identities and settings had
reappeared and but the new e-mail identity in use for a week had gone! I
suspect that for reasons unknown my PC has created another identity/
I have located in Windows/application data/identities both identities but
cannot figure out how to import the folders I need from the last week. I
have tried the import tool but it can't find the folder. I have also
tried
renaming the new inbox and backing it up in My Documents but the import
tool
won't recognise that either.
I am running OE 6 on Win98SE.
Any help gratefully received.

DBXtract will work with Win98SE but it does require the VB6 runtime files.
See the info at this link:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx

If you know where the messages are stored, you should be able to import them
using OEs menu, File/Import/Messages, selecting OE5/6 type and From a
Message Store and point to the Store location.
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pr...8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.


"Phil" wrote in message
...
Thank you. I understand the advice about folder maintenance and
compacting.
However, this problem was not limited to OE - my PC seemed to have created
an
entirely new identity (not just an OE identity) with default settings in
many
programmes, including both IE and firefox and how files and windows are
viewed, although data itself was not affected. Morevover, all my original
e-mail folders are intact. As stated, I have located the store of new
folders opened last week (which are still very small) but cannot import
them
to my original identity (Neither do I have any idea how to switch to the
mystery PC identity). There is no evidence that the e-mail folders are
corrupted. I have read about DBextract, but does this work with Win 98SE?

"Jim Pickering" wrote:

If you do not compact your message store folder often, the DBX files
containing the messages will become corrupted and unreadable at which
time
they will have new, empty ones created. For more on why this happens,
see
this article:

The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pr...8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.



"Phil" wrote in message
...
Last week I shut down my PC and on reopening discovered that two
additional
OE identities and all their folders had vanished, along with a lot of
other
e-mail and internet settings. All files were as normal. I had to
create
from scratch another OE identity for one of my e-mail accounts.
Today I restarted again and found that my old identities and settings
had
reappeared and but the new e-mail identity in use for a week had gone!
I
suspect that for reasons unknown my PC has created another identity/
I have located in Windows/application data/identities both identities
but
cannot figure out how to import the folders I need from the last week.
I
have tried the import tool but it can't find the folder. I have also
tried
renaming the new inbox and backing it up in My Documents but the import
tool
won't recognise that either.
I am running OE 6 on Win98SE.
Any help gratefully received.

You might try the method in the last paragraph on this page also:
www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

steve

"Phil" wrote in message
...
Thank you. I understand the advice about folder maintenance and
compacting.
However, this problem was not limited to OE - my PC seemed to have created
an
entirely new identity (not just an OE identity) with default settings in
many
programmes, including both IE and firefox and how files and windows are
viewed, although data itself was not affected. Morevover, all my original
e-mail folders are intact. As stated, I have located the store of new
folders opened last week (which are still very small) but cannot import
them
to my original identity (Neither do I have any idea how to switch to the
mystery PC identity). There is no evidence that the e-mail folders are
corrupted. I have read about DBextract, but does this work with Win 98SE?

"Jim Pickering" wrote:

If you do not compact your message store folder often, the DBX files
containing the messages will become corrupted and unreadable at which
time
they will have new, empty ones created. For more on why this happens,
see
this article:

The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pr...8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.



"Phil" wrote in message
...
Last week I shut down my PC and on reopening discovered that two
additional
OE identities and all their folders had vanished, along with a lot of
other
e-mail and internet settings. All files were as normal. I had to
create
from scratch another OE identity for one of my e-mail accounts.
Today I restarted again and found that my old identities and settings
had
reappeared and but the new e-mail identity in use for a week had gone!
I
suspect that for reasons unknown my PC has created another identity/
I have located in Windows/application data/identities both identities
but
cannot figure out how to import the folders I need from the last week.
I
have tried the import tool but it can't find the folder. I have also
tried
renaming the new inbox and backing it up in My Documents but the import
tool
won't recognise that either.
I am running OE 6 on Win98SE.
Any help gratefully received.