COMPACTING oe FILES

A week or so back I compacted my OE files as requested - having done this,
about 2/3 of the files in my inbox disappeared and a file called inbox.bak
appeared in the message store. I first tried renaming it inbox2.dbx, but it
didn't help, the files remained invisible, so then I followed instructions as
suggested in discussion group:- that is I closed down OE, renamed inbox.dbx
to inboxold.dbx and renamed inbox.bak file as inbox.dbx - I then got some of
my missing messages back, but not all of them and also the file inboxold.dbx
doesn't appear in the file list and remains invisible. Can anyone tell me
what's been going on?
Regards,

Those were not the correct instructions for what happened to you.

Instead of renaming the Inbox.dbx to Inboxold.dbx, you should have just
moved the messages to a user created folder. See this about importing a
single dbx file.

How to restore individual dbx files:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#imp1

For the messages that are still missing.

Move the messages you did recover from the bak file from the Inbox to yet
another folder. Close OE and rename /that/ Inbox.dbx to Inboxold.dbx. Drag
it to the Desktop and try a retrieval tool. If that folder was not compacted
since it was a bak file, any of these tools has a chance. If it was
compacted, only DBXpress will work in Extract From Disk mode. And that all
depends if there are indeed messages in the file to recover.

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

To help avoid this in the futu

Do not archive mail in the Inbox or Sent Items. Create your own user defined
folders and move the messages you wish to save to them. Empty Deleted Items
folder daily. Although dbx files have a theoretical capacity of 2GB, I
recommend about a 300MB max for less chance of corruption.

Information about the maximum file size of the .dbx files that are used by
Outlook Express:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=903095

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.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"richgo" wrote in message
...
A week or so back I compacted my OE files as requested - having done this,
about 2/3 of the files in my inbox disappeared and a file called inbox.bak
appeared in the message store. I first tried renaming it inbox2.dbx, but
it
didn't help, the files remained invisible, so then I followed instructions
as
suggested in discussion group:- that is I closed down OE, renamed
inbox.dbx
to inboxold.dbx and renamed inbox.bak file as inbox.dbx - I then got some
of
my missing messages back, but not all of them and also the file
inboxold.dbx
doesn't appear in the file list and remains invisible. Can anyone tell me
what's been going on?
Regards,

Thanks very much Bruce; I'll et you know how I get on


"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

Those were not the correct instructions for what happened to you.

Instead of renaming the Inbox.dbx to Inboxold.dbx, you should have just
moved the messages to a user created folder. See this about importing a
single dbx file.

How to restore individual dbx files:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#imp1

For the messages that are still missing.

Move the messages you did recover from the bak file from the Inbox to yet
another folder. Close OE and rename /that/ Inbox.dbx to Inboxold.dbx. Drag
it to the Desktop and try a retrieval tool. If that folder was not compacted
since it was a bak file, any of these tools has a chance. If it was
compacted, only DBXpress will work in Extract From Disk mode. And that all
depends if there are indeed messages in the file to recover.

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

To help avoid this in the futu

Do not archive mail in the Inbox or Sent Items. Create your own user defined
folders and move the messages you wish to save to them. Empty Deleted Items
folder daily. Although dbx files have a theoretical capacity of 2GB, I
recommend about a 300MB max for less chance of corruption.

Information about the maximum file size of the .dbx files that are used by
Outlook Express:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=903095

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.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"richgo" wrote in message
...
A week or so back I compacted my OE files as requested - having done this,
about 2/3 of the files in my inbox disappeared and a file called inbox.bak
appeared in the message store. I first tried renaming it inbox2.dbx, but
it
didn't help, the files remained invisible, so then I followed instructions
as
suggested in discussion group:- that is I closed down OE, renamed
inbox.dbx
to inboxold.dbx and renamed inbox.bak file as inbox.dbx - I then got some
of
my missing messages back, but not all of them and also the file
inboxold.dbx
doesn't appear in the file list and remains invisible. Can anyone tell me
what's been going on?
Regards,

Hi Bruce - Following your instructions, now have inbox.bak files opening in
archiv1.dbx - thanks for that but still seem to have a chunk of files missing.
Also noticed that some of the files in inbox.dbx appear to be duplicated in
archiv1.dbx. Any idea why this has happened?
I'd like to get rid of the duplicates but it would take a long time to go
through both folders to sort this out. What would happen to the duplicate
files if I dragged them (along with all the other files from archiv1.dbx)
into inbox.dbx - would I get two identical copies of the duplicated files in
inbx.dbx or would OE 'know' it already has one and prompt me not to drag the
duplicate files across?


"richgo" wrote:

Thanks very much Bruce; I'll et you know how I get on


"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

Those were not the correct instructions for what happened to you.

Instead of renaming the Inbox.dbx to Inboxold.dbx, you should have just
moved the messages to a user created folder. See this about importing a
single dbx file.

How to restore individual dbx files:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#imp1

For the messages that are still missing.

Move the messages you did recover from the bak file from the Inbox to yet
another folder. Close OE and rename /that/ Inbox.dbx to Inboxold.dbx. Drag
it to the Desktop and try a retrieval tool. If that folder was not compacted
since it was a bak file, any of these tools has a chance. If it was
compacted, only DBXpress will work in Extract From Disk mode. And that all
depends if there are indeed messages in the file to recover.

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

To help avoid this in the futu

Do not archive mail in the Inbox or Sent Items. Create your own user defined
folders and move the messages you wish to save to them. Empty Deleted Items
folder daily. Although dbx files have a theoretical capacity of 2GB, I
recommend about a 300MB max for less chance of corruption.

Information about the maximum file size of the .dbx files that are used by
Outlook Express:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=903095

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.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"richgo" wrote in message
...
A week or so back I compacted my OE files as requested - having done this,
about 2/3 of the files in my inbox disappeared and a file called inbox.bak
appeared in the message store. I first tried renaming it inbox2.dbx, but
it
didn't help, the files remained invisible, so then I followed instructions
as
suggested in discussion group:- that is I closed down OE, renamed
inbox.dbx
to inboxold.dbx and renamed inbox.bak file as inbox.dbx - I then got some
of
my missing messages back, but not all of them and also the file
inboxold.dbx
doesn't appear in the file list and remains invisible. Can anyone tell me
what's been going on?
Regards,

Don't mess with the two dbx files. Create a new folder and move all your
messages from the Inbox to it and then the messages from the Archiv1 folder
to it. It may duplicate the messages, but at least now they are in the same
folder.

You can do one of two things.

1: The dupes should be right next to the originals, so uncheck the Preview
Pane and hold down the Ctrl key while you click on each of the dupes and
then delete. Or:

Remove duplicate e-mails with this tool.

OEX:
http://www.oehelp.com/OEX/

You can now delete the Archiv1 folder you created and just use the newly
created folder for storage.

As far as "why" you are missing the chunk of messages, you will need a tool
to get them back, "possibly", and if you adhere to the precautions I already
posted, and will do it again, the chance of this happening in the future is
minuscule. And if you backup OE daily like I also suggest, another post like
this would never be needed.

General precautions for Outlook Express:

Do not archive mail in the Inbox or Sent Items. Create your own user defined
folders and move the messages you wish to save to them. Empty Deleted Items
folder daily. Although dbx files have a theoretical capacity of 2GB, I
recommend about a 300MB max for less chance of corruption.

Information about the maximum file size of the .dbx files that are used by
Outlook Express:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=903095

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.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"richgo" wrote in message
...
Hi Bruce - Following your instructions, now have inbox.bak files opening
in
archiv1.dbx - thanks for that but still seem to have a chunk of files
missing.
Also noticed that some of the files in inbox.dbx appear to be duplicated
in
archiv1.dbx. Any idea why this has happened?
I'd like to get rid of the duplicates but it would take a long time to go
through both folders to sort this out. What would happen to the duplicate
files if I dragged them (along with all the other files from archiv1.dbx)
into inbox.dbx - would I get two identical copies of the duplicated files
in
inbx.dbx or would OE 'know' it already has one and prompt me not to drag
the
duplicate files across?


"richgo" wrote:

Thanks very much Bruce; I'll et you know how I get on


"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

Those were not the correct instructions for what happened to you.

Instead of renaming the Inbox.dbx to Inboxold.dbx, you should have just
moved the messages to a user created folder. See this about importing a
single dbx file.

How to restore individual dbx files:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#imp1

For the messages that are still missing.

Move the messages you did recover from the bak file from the Inbox to
yet
another folder. Close OE and rename /that/ Inbox.dbx to Inboxold.dbx.
Drag
it to the Desktop and try a retrieval tool. If that folder was not
compacted
since it was a bak file, any of these tools has a chance. If it was
compacted, only DBXpress will work in Extract From Disk mode. And that
all
depends if there are indeed messages in the file to recover.

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

To help avoid this in the futu

Do not archive mail in the Inbox or Sent Items. Create your own user
defined
folders and move the messages you wish to save to them. Empty Deleted
Items
folder daily. Although dbx files have a theoretical capacity of 2GB, I
recommend about a 300MB max for less chance of corruption.

Information about the maximum file size of the .dbx files that are used
by
Outlook Express:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=903095

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.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"richgo" wrote in message
...
A week or so back I compacted my OE files as requested - having done
this,
about 2/3 of the files in my inbox disappeared and a file called
inbox.bak
appeared in the message store. I first tried renaming it inbox2.dbx,
but
it
didn't help, the files remained invisible, so then I followed
instructions
as
suggested in discussion group:- that is I closed down OE, renamed
inbox.dbx
to inboxold.dbx and renamed inbox.bak file as inbox.dbx - I then got
some
of
my missing messages back, but not all of them and also the file
inboxold.dbx
doesn't appear in the file list and remains invisible. Can anyone
tell me
what's been going on?
Regards,