And the behavior persists in a brand-new identity, right?

What anti-virus application or security suite is installed and is your
subscription current? What anti-spyware applications (other than Defender)?
What third-party firewall (if any)?

Has a(another) Norton or McAfee application ever been installed on the
computer (e.g., a free-trial version that came preinstalled when you bought
it)?

Vfal wrote:
Thanks PA Bear and Bruce especially for the links to other sites that may
be
of help, however after following all the suggestions I am still
experiencing
the same problem. I am going to take a deep breath and think about my
next
option.

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:
That's a different kettle of fish then.

1a. Move any messages that you want to keep out of Sent Items and Deleted
Items folders and into other local OE folders you've created for
archiving
(saving) such messages.

1b. Move 99% of your messages in your Inbox folder to other local OE
folders, too.

2a. Write down the location of your identity's store
(http://www.insideoe.com/files/store.htm#storemain).

2b. Enable 'Show Hidden Files and Folders' via Start | Control Panel |
Folder Options | View (cf.
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...torial62.html).

3. Close OE.

4. In Windows Explorer, navigate to your store folder, find & delete the
files Outbox.dbx, Sent Items.dbx, and Deleted Items.dbx.

To avoid such problems in the future, adhere to the following caveats:

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

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Frequently perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working
offline". More at http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

- Do not cancel Automatic Compacting, should it occur, and do not attempt
to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if Automatic
Compacting is taking place.

- Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can cause
corruption (i.e., loss of messages) and provides no additional
protection:

Why you don't need your anti-virus to scan your email
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tuto...ning/index.htm
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002


Vfal wrote:
I deleted the contents

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:
You deleted the contents of Outbox folder or you deleted Outbox.dbx
from
your store folder?

Vfal wrote:
My OS is Windows XP SP3
I did a bad thing and edited the Outbox.dbx and by edit I mean
deleted
everything in there. Now I cannot send mail. I get a "The message
could
not be sent. An error occured." I have renamed it old, so it can
rebuild, I have tried to restore my Store folder from a saved version
on
a
jump drive. Nothing seems to work. Anyone have any ideas? Do I have
to
reinstall Outlook Express? I would rather not if possible.