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#11
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Inbox contents simply vanished
I compact manually every few weeks, usually after I've moved stuff from the
Inbox and Sent folder into my custom folders. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. This is news to me. I've never heard of saved files on a computer hard drive simply vanishing, short of a hard drive failure. I will check out the programs you recommend. Thank you. Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... If background compacting was not checked, how often do you compact manually? Moving or deleting messages does not retrieve wasted space until you compact. Bloated folders and interrupting compacting are the two most common reasons for losing messages, but other things can cause it as well, such as e-mail scanning. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. At this point, the reason is moot. If you are sure background compacting was not involved, then any of these programs may retrieve your messages. Macallan Outlook Express Extraction: http://www.insideoe.com/resources/tools.htm#macallan DBXtract: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx DBXpress: {much faster for large files} http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... Yes, Show All Messages is checked and nothing else is checked. The way this happened was: my computer froze last night and I restarted it by pressing the external restart button on the tower, which I regularly do when the computer freezes, which happens fairly frequently (Win 98!). But there was no compacting of OE going on at the time. And yes, I regularly follow all those steps for OE maintenance. I allow up to a month of messages in Inbox and Sent box, keeping older messages in my own custom folders. But it's still a mystery how this happened. I have never had a saved file on the hard drive simply become empty. Could it indicate a hard drive failure? Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... While in the Inbox, View | Current View. Is Show All Messages checked and nothing else? If that is the case, and the Inbox.dbx file is empty, (130KB is essentially empty), In Tools | Options | Maintenance, is: Compact messages in background checked? If so, OE was probably compacting the message store when you shut OE down, causing the loss of messages. (Why this option was removed with XP?SP2). Should this be the case, DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode has the best chance to recover messages: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx General precautions for Outlook Express: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt. 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: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until the compacting is completed. Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see: http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}. And backup often. Backup & Resto http://www.insideoe.com/backup/ This is a great two click program: Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB) http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... In OE 6, Windows 98, the entire contents of the Inbox just vanished after restarting computer. There were about 4 weeks of e-mail in there. Other folders do not seem to be affected. I looked in the Outlook Express folder on my hard drive, and the Inbox file at this address: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{9226D728-E116-11DA-8D61-00045A5FABE0}\Microsoft\Outlook Express was down to something like 130 KB, containing just a lot of unreadable code. I normally move Inbox contents to other folders regularly to keep Inbox from getting too large. I've never seen anything like this. The contents of a huge file simply vanishing. |
#12
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Inbox contents simply vanished
Why it happens:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...s.htm#mailgone http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx Avoiding Such Corruption in Future (Win9x): - 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 and frequently perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working offline". More at http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm - Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can cause corruption (i.e., loss of messages), it provides no additional protection, and even Symantec says it's not necessary: QP 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. /QP http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...02111812533106 -- ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear) MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002 AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net DTS-L http://dts-l.net/ Larry wrote: ... But it's still a mystery how this happened. |
#13
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Inbox contents simply vanished
OE's dbx file structure is very fragile and has been prone to corruption
from its conception. In Windows Mail in Vista, the file structure was replaced and each message is saved as its own eml file. Unfortunately, while they fixed that issue, they screwed up numerous other things, and Windows Mail is all but being abandoned already. -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... I compact manually every few weeks, usually after I've moved stuff from the Inbox and Sent folder into my custom folders. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. This is news to me. I've never heard of saved files on a computer hard drive simply vanishing, short of a hard drive failure. I will check out the programs you recommend. Thank you. Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... If background compacting was not checked, how often do you compact manually? Moving or deleting messages does not retrieve wasted space until you compact. Bloated folders and interrupting compacting are the two most common reasons for losing messages, but other things can cause it as well, such as scanning. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. At this point, the reason is moot. If you are sure background compacting was not involved, then any of these programs may retrieve your messages. Macallan Outlook Express Extraction: http://www.insideoe.com/resources/tools.htm#macallan DBXtract: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx DBXpress: {much faster for large files} http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... Yes, Show All Messages is checked and nothing else is checked. The way this happened was: my computer froze last night and I restarted it by pressing the external restart button on the tower, which I regularly do when the computer freezes, which happens fairly frequently (Win 98!). But there was no compacting of OE going on at the time. And yes, I regularly follow all those steps for OE maintenance. I allow up to a month of messages in Inbox and Sent box, keeping older messages in my own custom folders. But it's still a mystery how this happened. I have never had a saved file on the hard drive simply become empty. Could it indicate a hard drive failure? Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... While in the Inbox, View | Current View. Is Show All Messages checked and nothing else? If that is the case, and the Inbox.dbx file is empty, (130KB is essentially empty), In Tools | Options | Maintenance, is: Compact messages in background checked? If so, OE was probably compacting the message store when you shut OE down, causing the loss of messages. (Why this option was removed with XP?SP2). Should this be the case, DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode has the best chance to recover messages: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx General precautions for Outlook Express: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt. 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: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until the compacting is completed. Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see: http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}. And backup often. Backup & Resto http://www.insideoe.com/backup/ This is a great two click program: Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB) http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... In OE 6, Windows 98, the entire contents of the Inbox just vanished after restarting computer. There were about 4 weeks of e-mail in there. Other folders do not seem to be affected. I looked in the Outlook Express folder on my hard drive, and the Inbox file at this address: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{9226D728-E116-11DA-8D61-00045A5FABE0}\Microsoft\Outlook Express was down to something like 130 KB, containing just a lot of unreadable code. I normally move Inbox contents to other folders regularly to keep Inbox from getting too large. I've never seen anything like this. The contents of a huge file simply vanishing. |
#14
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Inbox contents simply vanished
I downloaded the Macallan Outlook Express Extraction and it doesn't offer any instructions or anything. There's no indication of how to go about fixing a damaged .dbx file. The Inbox.dbx is currently working normally, that is, further e-mail I've received is my Inbox. Does that mean the Inbox.dbx is working correctly on some e-mails, while the older e-mails in it are corrupted? What actually happens to the .dbx file when the Outlook Express Extraction is run on it? Another odd thing. When I click on any .dbx file in the Outlook Express folder, even the smaller ones, I'm prompted to open it with WordPad instead of NotePad. Then when I open it, it's nothing but squares. No legible characters. As I remember from the past, when I would open a .dbx file I would see all the e-mail messages that were in the folder represented by that file. However, in the OE application itself, all my folders (except for the disappeared messages from the Inbox) are operating normally. "Larry" wrote in message ... I compact manually every few weeks, usually after I've moved stuff from the Inbox and Sent folder into my custom folders. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. This is news to me. I've never heard of saved files on a computer hard drive simply vanishing, short of a hard drive failure. I will check out the programs you recommend. Thank you. Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... If background compacting was not checked, how often do you compact manually? Moving or deleting messages does not retrieve wasted space until you compact. Bloated folders and interrupting compacting are the two most common reasons for losing messages, but other things can cause it as well, such as scanning. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. At this point, the reason is moot. If you are sure background compacting was not involved, then any of these programs may retrieve your messages. Macallan Outlook Express Extraction: http://www.insideoe.com/resources/tools.htm#macallan DBXtract: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx DBXpress: {much faster for large files} http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... Yes, Show All Messages is checked and nothing else is checked. The way this happened was: my computer froze last night and I restarted it by pressing the external restart button on the tower, which I regularly do when the computer freezes, which happens fairly frequently (Win 98!). But there was no compacting of OE going on at the time. And yes, I regularly follow all those steps for OE maintenance. I allow up to a month of messages in Inbox and Sent box, keeping older messages in my own custom folders. But it's still a mystery how this happened. I have never had a saved file on the hard drive simply become empty. Could it indicate a hard drive failure? Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... While in the Inbox, View | Current View. Is Show All Messages checked and nothing else? If that is the case, and the Inbox.dbx file is empty, (130KB is essentially empty), In Tools | Options | Maintenance, is: Compact messages in background checked? If so, OE was probably compacting the message store when you shut OE down, causing the loss of messages. (Why this option was removed with XP?SP2). Should this be the case, DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode has the best chance to recover messages: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx General precautions for Outlook Express: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt. 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: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until the compacting is completed. Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see: http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}. And backup often. Backup & Resto http://www.insideoe.com/backup/ This is a great two click program: Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB) http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... In OE 6, Windows 98, the entire contents of the Inbox just vanished after restarting computer. There were about 4 weeks of e-mail in there. Other folders do not seem to be affected. I looked in the Outlook Express folder on my hard drive, and the Inbox file at this address: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{9226D728-E116-11DA-8D61-00045A5FABE0}\Microsoft\Outlook Express was down to something like 130 KB, containing just a lot of unreadable code. I normally move Inbox contents to other folders regularly to keep Inbox from getting too large. I've never seen anything like this. The contents of a huge file simply vanishing. |
#15
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Inbox contents simply vanished
I just went back through all your posts. How large is this Inbox? An empty
Inbox is 59KB. I noted that you mentioned "small", "a couple hundred KB". I don't know how much mail constitutes 4 weeks worth, but unless they are all text, a couple hundred KB isn't very much. I can't help with instructions for Macallan. What do you have in the message store right now? An Inbox.dbx with the missing messages, and a new Inbox(1).dbx that you are currently using? Or do you only have one Inbox.dbx? If only one, that is a whole new ball game, and one you're likely to lose. From what I remember reading here in the past, I believe you need to close OE and then rename the old Inbox to say, Inboxold.dbx. Then drag it to the desktop and work on it there, but this just fragmented memories. If you click on a dbx file to open, only Outlook Express can read it. With Notepad, you will see somewhat meaningless letters and numbers. If they are all zeros, I believe the file is empty. WordPad is not meant to open them at all. -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... I downloaded the Macallan Outlook Express Extraction and it doesn't offer any instructions or anything. There's no indication of how to go about fixing a damaged .dbx file. The Inbox.dbx is currently working normally, that is, further e-mail I've received is my Inbox. Does that mean the Inbox.dbx is working correctly on some e-mails, while the older e-mails in it are corrupted? What actually happens to the .dbx file when the Outlook Express Extraction is run on it? Another odd thing. When I click on any .dbx file in the Outlook Express folder, even the smaller ones, I'm prompted to open it with WordPad instead of NotePad. Then when I open it, it's nothing but squares. No legible characters. As I remember from the past, when I would open a .dbx file I would see all the e-mail messages that were in the folder represented by that file. However, in the OE application itself, all my folders (except for the disappeared messages from the Inbox) are operating normally. "Larry" wrote in message ... I compact manually every few weeks, usually after I've moved stuff from the Inbox and Sent folder into my custom folders. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. This is news to me. I've never heard of saved files on a computer hard drive simply vanishing, short of a hard drive failure. I will check out the programs you recommend. Thank you. Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... If background compacting was not checked, how often do you compact manually? Moving or deleting messages does not retrieve wasted space until you compact. Bloated folders and interrupting compacting are the two most common reasons for losing messages, but other things can cause it as well, such as scanning. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. At this point, the reason is moot. If you are sure background compacting was not involved, then any of these programs may retrieve your messages. Macallan Outlook Express Extraction: http://www.insideoe.com/resources/tools.htm#macallan DBXtract: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx DBXpress: {much faster for large files} http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... Yes, Show All Messages is checked and nothing else is checked. The way this happened was: my computer froze last night and I restarted it by pressing the external restart button on the tower, which I regularly do when the computer freezes, which happens fairly frequently (Win 98!). But there was no compacting of OE going on at the time. And yes, I regularly follow all those steps for OE maintenance. I allow up to a month of messages in Inbox and Sent box, keeping older messages in my own custom folders. But it's still a mystery how this happened. I have never had a saved file on the hard drive simply become empty. Could it indicate a hard drive failure? Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... While in the Inbox, View | Current View. Is Show All Messages checked and nothing else? If that is the case, and the Inbox.dbx file is empty, (130KB is essentially empty), In Tools | Options | Maintenance, is: Compact messages in background checked? If so, OE was probably compacting the message store when you shut OE down, causing the loss of messages. (Why this option was removed with XP?SP2). Should this be the case, DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode has the best chance to recover messages: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx General precautions for Outlook Express: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt. 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: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until the compacting is completed. Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see: http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}. And backup often. Backup & Resto http://www.insideoe.com/backup/ This is a great two click program: Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB) http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... In OE 6, Windows 98, the entire contents of the Inbox just vanished after restarting computer. There were about 4 weeks of e-mail in there. Other folders do not seem to be affected. I looked in the Outlook Express folder on my hard drive, and the Inbox file at this address: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{9226D728-E116-11DA-8D61-00045A5FABE0}\Microsoft\Outlook Express was down to something like 130 KB, containing just a lot of unreadable code. I normally move Inbox contents to other folders regularly to keep Inbox from getting too large. I've never seen anything like this. The contents of a huge file simply vanishing. |
#16
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Inbox contents simply vanished
You can get Outlook Express.dbx viewers. Just google it for several
options, some freeware. "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... I just went back through all your posts. How large is this Inbox? An empty Inbox is 59KB. I noted that you mentioned "small", "a couple hundred KB". I don't know how much mail constitutes 4 weeks worth, but unless they are all text, a couple hundred KB isn't very much. I can't help with instructions for Macallan. What do you have in the message store right now? An Inbox.dbx with the missing messages, and a new Inbox(1).dbx that you are currently using? Or do you only have one Inbox.dbx? If only one, that is a whole new ball game, and one you're likely to lose. From what I remember reading here in the past, I believe you need to close OE and then rename the old Inbox to say, Inboxold.dbx. Then drag it to the desktop and work on it there, but this just fragmented memories. If you click on a dbx file to open, only Outlook Express can read it. With Notepad, you will see somewhat meaningless letters and numbers. If they are all zeros, I believe the file is empty. WordPad is not meant to open them at all. -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... I downloaded the Macallan Outlook Express Extraction and it doesn't offer any instructions or anything. There's no indication of how to go about fixing a damaged .dbx file. The Inbox.dbx is currently working normally, that is, further e-mail I've received is my Inbox. Does that mean the Inbox.dbx is working correctly on some e-mails, while the older e-mails in it are corrupted? What actually happens to the .dbx file when the Outlook Express Extraction is run on it? Another odd thing. When I click on any .dbx file in the Outlook Express folder, even the smaller ones, I'm prompted to open it with WordPad instead of NotePad. Then when I open it, it's nothing but squares. No legible characters. As I remember from the past, when I would open a .dbx file I would see all the e-mail messages that were in the folder represented by that file. However, in the OE application itself, all my folders (except for the disappeared messages from the Inbox) are operating normally. "Larry" wrote in message ... I compact manually every few weeks, usually after I've moved stuff from the Inbox and Sent folder into my custom folders. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. This is news to me. I've never heard of saved files on a computer hard drive simply vanishing, short of a hard drive failure. I will check out the programs you recommend. Thank you. Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... If background compacting was not checked, how often do you compact manually? Moving or deleting messages does not retrieve wasted space until you compact. Bloated folders and interrupting compacting are the two most common reasons for losing messages, but other things can cause it as well, such as scanning. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. At this point, the reason is moot. If you are sure background compacting was not involved, then any of these programs may retrieve your messages. Macallan Outlook Express Extraction: http://www.insideoe.com/resources/tools.htm#macallan DBXtract: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx DBXpress: {much faster for large files} http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... Yes, Show All Messages is checked and nothing else is checked. The way this happened was: my computer froze last night and I restarted it by pressing the external restart button on the tower, which I regularly do when the computer freezes, which happens fairly frequently (Win 98!). But there was no compacting of OE going on at the time. And yes, I regularly follow all those steps for OE maintenance. I allow up to a month of messages in Inbox and Sent box, keeping older messages in my own custom folders. But it's still a mystery how this happened. I have never had a saved file on the hard drive simply become empty. Could it indicate a hard drive failure? Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... While in the Inbox, View | Current View. Is Show All Messages checked and nothing else? If that is the case, and the Inbox.dbx file is empty, (130KB is essentially empty), In Tools | Options | Maintenance, is: Compact messages in background checked? If so, OE was probably compacting the message store when you shut OE down, causing the loss of messages. (Why this option was removed with XP?SP2). Should this be the case, DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode has the best chance to recover messages: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx General precautions for Outlook Express: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt. 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: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until the compacting is completed. Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see: http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}. And backup often. Backup & Resto http://www.insideoe.com/backup/ This is a great two click program: Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB) http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... In OE 6, Windows 98, the entire contents of the Inbox just vanished after restarting computer. There were about 4 weeks of e-mail in there. Other folders do not seem to be affected. I looked in the Outlook Express folder on my hard drive, and the Inbox file at this address: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{9226D728-E116-11DA-8D61-00045A5FABE0}\Microsoft\Outlook Express was down to something like 130 KB, containing just a lot of unreadable code. I normally move Inbox contents to other folders regularly to keep Inbox from getting too large. I've never seen anything like this. The contents of a huge file simply vanishing. |
#17
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Inbox contents simply vanished
Strange things going on (see below), but I think the problem may be solvable. 1. The Inbox, prior to the problem, would have been around 80 or 90 MB. As I said, my procedure is to let it build up for a few weeks and then move a lot of it into a custom folder. But after the problem occurred, the Inbox was 130 KB. After I received e-mails since this morning, it went up to about 400 KB. 2. But here's the strange thing: just now I looked again, and the only Inbox.dbx in the OE folder has 1.24 MB!!! So somehow it's returned. 3. Yet the Inbox in the OE application is still just the e-mails received since this morning. 4. When I click on a .dbx file (no matter how small), I get a message saying "this is too large to open with NOtepad. Open with Wordpad?" When I say yes, it opens in Wordpad, and the top of the file is just box characters, but if I scroll down a ways, there is e-mails, html code and so on. 5. However, if I do the same with Inbox.dbx, all it seems to show is today's handful of e-mails, rather than the vast store of e-mails from the last month. Yet the file has 1.24 MB. "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... I just went back through all your posts. How large is this Inbox? An empty Inbox is 59KB. I noted that you mentioned "small", "a couple hundred KB". I don't know how much mail constitutes 4 weeks worth, but unless they are all text, a couple hundred KB isn't very much. I can't help with instructions for Macallan. What do you have in the message store right now? An Inbox.dbx with the missing messages, and a new Inbox(1).dbx that you are currently using? Or do you only have one Inbox.dbx? If only one, that is a whole new ball game, and one you're likely to lose. From what I remember reading here in the past, I believe you need to close OE and then rename the old Inbox to say, Inboxold.dbx. Then drag it to the desktop and work on it there, but this just fragmented memories. If you click on a dbx file to open, only Outlook Express can read it. With Notepad, you will see somewhat meaningless letters and numbers. If they are all zeros, I believe the file is empty. WordPad is not meant to open them at all. -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... I downloaded the Macallan Outlook Express Extraction and it doesn't offer any instructions or anything. There's no indication of how to go about fixing a damaged .dbx file. The Inbox.dbx is currently working normally, that is, further e-mail I've received is my Inbox. Does that mean the Inbox.dbx is working correctly on some e-mails, while the older e-mails in it are corrupted? What actually happens to the .dbx file when the Outlook Express Extraction is run on it? Another odd thing. When I click on any .dbx file in the Outlook Express folder, even the smaller ones, I'm prompted to open it with WordPad instead of NotePad. Then when I open it, it's nothing but squares. No legible characters. As I remember from the past, when I would open a .dbx file I would see all the e-mail messages that were in the folder represented by that file. However, in the OE application itself, all my folders (except for the disappeared messages from the Inbox) are operating normally. "Larry" wrote in message ... I compact manually every few weeks, usually after I've moved stuff from the Inbox and Sent folder into my custom folders. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. This is news to me. I've never heard of saved files on a computer hard drive simply vanishing, short of a hard drive failure. I will check out the programs you recommend. Thank you. Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... If background compacting was not checked, how often do you compact manually? Moving or deleting messages does not retrieve wasted space until you compact. Bloated folders and interrupting compacting are the two most common reasons for losing messages, but other things can cause it as well, such as scanning. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. At this point, the reason is moot. If you are sure background compacting was not involved, then any of these programs may retrieve your messages. Macallan Outlook Express Extraction: http://www.insideoe.com/resources/tools.htm#macallan DBXtract: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx DBXpress: {much faster for large files} http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... Yes, Show All Messages is checked and nothing else is checked. The way this happened was: my computer froze last night and I restarted it by pressing the external restart button on the tower, which I regularly do when the computer freezes, which happens fairly frequently (Win 98!). But there was no compacting of OE going on at the time. And yes, I regularly follow all those steps for OE maintenance. I allow up to a month of messages in Inbox and Sent box, keeping older messages in my own custom folders. But it's still a mystery how this happened. I have never had a saved file on the hard drive simply become empty. Could it indicate a hard drive failure? Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... While in the Inbox, View | Current View. Is Show All Messages checked and nothing else? If that is the case, and the Inbox.dbx file is empty, (130KB is essentially empty), In Tools | Options | Maintenance, is: Compact messages in background checked? If so, OE was probably compacting the message store when you shut OE down, causing the loss of messages. (Why this option was removed with XP?SP2). Should this be the case, DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode has the best chance to recover messages: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx General precautions for Outlook Express: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt. 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: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until the compacting is completed. Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see: http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}. And backup often. Backup & Resto http://www.insideoe.com/backup/ This is a great two click program: Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB) http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... In OE 6, Windows 98, the entire contents of the Inbox just vanished after restarting computer. There were about 4 weeks of e-mail in there. Other folders do not seem to be affected. I looked in the Outlook Express folder on my hard drive, and the Inbox file at this address: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{9226D728-E116-11DA-8D61-00045A5FABE0}\Microsoft\Outlook Express was down to something like 130 KB, containing just a lot of unreadable code. I normally move Inbox contents to other folders regularly to keep Inbox from getting too large. I've never seen anything like this. The contents of a huge file simply vanishing. |
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Inbox contents simply vanished
This gets stranger by the moment and is truly unique. (Unless you are
looking in message store folders for two different identities). I have never seen the size of a dbx file get small, and then large again to the extent you say. If it was me, this is what I would do. Create a new folder and move all your existing Inbox mail to it so you at least don't lose that. Close OE and in Windows Explorer, drag the Inbox.dbx file to the Desktop. Rename the Inbox.dbx file on the Desktop to Saved Mail.dbx. A new, empty Inbox will be created when you open OE. Open OE and create a folder called Saved Mail. Open the new folder and then close OE. (You must do this). Go back to Windows Explorer and expand the path to the Message Store folder for your OE identity, but don't open it. Click on the Desktop and drag the file from the Desktop in the right hand pane to the OE store folder in the left pane. Prompt - "Do you want to overwrite......."? Click Yes. Do the messages appear in the Saved Mail folder? If not, drag it back out of the message store to the Desktop for safe keeping while we figure out where to go next. -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... Strange things going on (see below), but I think the problem may be solvable. 1. The Inbox, prior to the problem, would have been around 80 or 90 MB. As I said, my procedure is to let it build up for a few weeks and then move a lot of it into a custom folder. But after the problem occurred, the Inbox was 130 KB. After I received e-mails since this morning, it went up to about 400 KB. 2. But here's the strange thing: just now I looked again, and the only Inbox.dbx in the OE folder has 1.24 MB!!! So somehow it's returned. 3. Yet the Inbox in the OE application is still just the e-mails received since this morning. 4. When I click on a .dbx file (no matter how small), I get a message saying "this is too large to open with NOtepad. Open with Wordpad?" When I say yes, it opens in Wordpad, and the top of the file is just box characters, but if I scroll down a ways, there is e-mails, html code and so on. 5. However, if I do the same with Inbox.dbx, all it seems to show is today's handful of e-mails, rather than the vast store of e-mails from the last month. Yet the file has 1.24 MB. "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... I just went back through all your posts. How large is this Inbox? An empty Inbox is 59KB. I noted that you mentioned "small", "a couple hundred KB". I don't know how much mail constitutes 4 weeks worth, but unless they are all text, a couple hundred KB isn't very much. I can't help with instructions for Macallan. What do you have in the message store right now? An Inbox.dbx with the missing messages, and a new Inbox(1).dbx that you are currently using? Or do you only have one Inbox.dbx? If only one, that is a whole new ball game, and one you're likely to lose. From what I remember reading here in the past, I believe you need to close OE and then rename the old Inbox to say, Inboxold.dbx. Then drag it to the desktop and work on it there, but this just fragmented memories. If you click on a dbx file to open, only Outlook Express can read it. With Notepad, you will see somewhat meaningless letters and numbers. If they are all zeros, I believe the file is empty. WordPad is not meant to open them at all. -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... I downloaded the Macallan Outlook Express Extraction and it doesn't offer any instructions or anything. There's no indication of how to go about fixing a damaged .dbx file. The Inbox.dbx is currently working normally, that is, further e-mail I've received is my Inbox. Does that mean the Inbox.dbx is working correctly on some e-mails, while the older e-mails in it are corrupted? What actually happens to the .dbx file when the Outlook Express Extraction is run on it? Another odd thing. When I click on any .dbx file in the Outlook Express folder, even the smaller ones, I'm prompted to open it with WordPad instead of NotePad. Then when I open it, it's nothing but squares. No legible characters. As I remember from the past, when I would open a .dbx file I would see all the e-mail messages that were in the folder represented by that file. However, in the OE application itself, all my folders (except for the disappeared messages from the Inbox) are operating normally. "Larry" wrote in message ... I compact manually every few weeks, usually after I've moved stuff from the Inbox and Sent folder into my custom folders. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. This is news to me. I've never heard of saved files on a computer hard drive simply vanishing, short of a hard drive failure. I will check out the programs you recommend. Thank you. Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... If background compacting was not checked, how often do you compact manually? Moving or deleting messages does not retrieve wasted space until you compact. Bloated folders and interrupting compacting are the two most common reasons for losing messages, but other things can cause it as well, such as scanning. Bottom line is that you should backup OE daily if you value your messages. At this point, the reason is moot. If you are sure background compacting was not involved, then any of these programs may retrieve your messages. Macallan Outlook Express Extraction: http://www.insideoe.com/resources/tools.htm#macallan DBXtract: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx DBXpress: {much faster for large files} http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... Yes, Show All Messages is checked and nothing else is checked. The way this happened was: my computer froze last night and I restarted it by pressing the external restart button on the tower, which I regularly do when the computer freezes, which happens fairly frequently (Win 98!). But there was no compacting of OE going on at the time. And yes, I regularly follow all those steps for OE maintenance. I allow up to a month of messages in Inbox and Sent box, keeping older messages in my own custom folders. But it's still a mystery how this happened. I have never had a saved file on the hard drive simply become empty. Could it indicate a hard drive failure? Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... While in the Inbox, View | Current View. Is Show All Messages checked and nothing else? If that is the case, and the Inbox.dbx file is empty, (130KB is essentially empty), In Tools | Options | Maintenance, is: Compact messages in background checked? If so, OE was probably compacting the message store when you shut OE down, causing the loss of messages. (Why this option was removed with XP?SP2). Should this be the case, DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode has the best chance to recover messages: http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx General precautions for Outlook Express: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt. 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: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until the compacting is completed. Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see: http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}. And backup often. Backup & Resto http://www.insideoe.com/backup/ This is a great two click program: Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB) http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... In OE 6, Windows 98, the entire contents of the Inbox just vanished after restarting computer. There were about 4 weeks of e-mail in there. Other folders do not seem to be affected. I looked in the Outlook Express folder on my hard drive, and the Inbox file at this address: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{9226D728-E116-11DA-8D61-00045A5FABE0}\Microsoft\Outlook Express was down to something like 130 KB, containing just a lot of unreadable code. I normally move Inbox contents to other folders regularly to keep Inbox from getting too large. I've never seen anything like this. The contents of a huge file simply vanishing. |
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Inbox contents simply vanished
Bruce, I've done all the steps. Nothing appears in the Saved Mail folder. Also, when I open Saved Mail.dbx, it's the same as befo even though the file is 1.24 MB, there are just the e-mails from yesterday. I've moved the Saved Mail.dbx back to Desktop. Until tomorrow. Many thanks for your help. Larry "Bruce Hagen" wrote in message ... This gets stranger by the moment and is truly unique. (Unless you are looking in message store folders for two different identities). I have never seen the size of a dbx file get small, and then large again to the extent you say. If it was me, this is what I would do. Create a new folder and move all your existing Inbox mail to it so you at least don't lose that. Close OE and in Windows Explorer, drag the Inbox.dbx file to the Desktop. Rename the Inbox.dbx file on the Desktop to Saved Mail.dbx. A new, empty Inbox will be created when you open OE. Open OE and create a folder called Saved Mail. Open the new folder and then close OE. (You must do this). Go back to Windows Explorer and expand the path to the Message Store folder for your OE identity, but don't open it. Click on the Desktop and drag the file from the Desktop in the right hand pane to the OE store folder in the left pane. Prompt - "Do you want to overwrite......."? Click Yes. Do the messages appear in the Saved Mail folder? If not, drag it back out of the message store to the Desktop for safe keeping while we figure out where to go next. -- Bruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA "Larry" wrote in message ... Strange things going on (see below), but I think the problem may be solvable. 1. The Inbox, prior to the problem, would have been around 80 or 90 MB. As I said, my procedure is to let it build up for a few weeks and then move a lot of it into a custom folder. But after the problem occurred, the Inbox was 130 KB. After I received e-mails since this morning, it went up to about 400 KB. 2. But here's the strange thing: just now I looked again, and the only Inbox.dbx in the OE folder has 1.24 MB!!! So somehow it's returned. 3. Yet the Inbox in the OE application is still just the e-mails received since this morning. 4. When I click on a .dbx file (no matter how small), I get a message saying "this is too large to open with NOtepad. Open with Wordpad?" When I say yes, it opens in Wordpad, and the top of the file is just box characters, but if I scroll down a ways, there is e-mails, html code and so on. 5. However, if I do the same with Inbox.dbx, all it seems to show is today's handful of e-mails, rather than the vast store of e-mails from the last month. Yet the file has 1.24 MB. |
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Inbox contents simply vanished
I haven't been following this thread but this confuses me. How did you
determine the size of it when it was 400KB? And when it was 1.24 MB? By seeing the size of the Inbox.dbx file in Windows Explorer. 2. Get any of the many programs to extract messages from .dbx files and run it I did try OE Extract and it doesn't do anything and provides no instructions, so I guess one of the nonfreeware apps is next. "dadiOH" wrote in message ... Larry wrote: Strange things going on (see below), but I think the problem may be solvable. 1. The Inbox, prior to the problem, would have been around 80 or 90 MB. As I said, my procedure is to let it build up for a few weeks and then move a lot of it into a custom folder. But after the problem occurred, the Inbox was 130 KB. After I received e-mails since this morning, it went up to about 400 KB. 2. But here's the strange thing: just now I looked again, and the only Inbox.dbx in the OE folder has 1.24 MB!!! So somehow it's returned. I haven't been following this thread but this confuses me. How did you determine the size of it when it was 400KB? And when it was 1.24 MB? ________________ 3. Yet the Inbox in the OE application is still just the e-mails received since this morning. Because it is screwed up. That is, whatever methodology used to determine messages start/end and/or count is wrong. Like a file that has its EOF in the wrong place/ __________________ This is what I'd do... 1. Save a copy of Inbox.dbx somewhere 2. Get any of the many programs to extract messages from .dbx files and run it 3. If it is successful in getting your messages, save them as MAIL ( i.e., *.eml - separate, discrete messages) in a folder on your desktop. If not successful, forget what follows. 4. Delete Inbox.dbx using Explorer 5. Open OE and display its Inbox - which should now be empty 6. Select all the recovered email messages in your temporary desktop folder and drag them to the OE pane where they would normally be displayed. 7. Close OE dadiOH |
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