It has taken me ages to find this site, i have 2 key questions:-

1. how do i stop the reminder that compacting messgaes will ave disk space i
have plenty and do not wish to compact messages.

2. because i said yes in the past i now have 00s of messages with a dbx
extension i cannot read, how do i get to the the stage where all my email
messages can be accessed in full - i do not have a problem of storage space?

What are "00s of messages"?

You can't stop the reminder except by letting it compact.

Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact

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

Compacting your folders periodically is a must to keep OE functioning well
and at some point, you may lose all your saved messages if you don't. When
you delete, or move messages, the space they had used remains until you
compact.

***Never touch anything until the compacting is finished.***

See:
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2

With SP2, automatic background compacting was removed due to problems it
caused. Now you will get a prompt to compact after 100 OE closings, which
you should do, and don't touch anything until it has finished. If you
compact manually, at your convenience, this will also set the counter back
to zero. See this for more information:
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact

If you are fully patched, you will also now see a copy of your dbx files
being copied to the Recycle Bin as BAK files. Should something go awry when
compacting, the messages can easily be restored from this backup. A manual
compact will also reset the counter in the registry back to zero now.

For more info, see the information outlined in red he
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2

To keep things running smooth, and for faster compacting:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt and you may lose mail. 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.

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


"fyldene" wrote in message
...
It has taken me ages to find this site, i have 2 key questions:-

1. how do i stop the reminder that compacting messgaes will ave disk space
i
have plenty and do not wish to compact messages.

2. because i said yes in the past i now have 00s of messages with a dbx
extension i cannot read, how do i get to the the stage where all my email
messages can be accessed in full - i do not have a problem of storage
space?

A1. Unless you revert to WinXP SP1, you can't disable Automatic Compacting
nor should you do so if you value your messages at all.

A2. You cannot "read" a DBX file, no matter what you do. The DBX file must
be associated with a folder of the same name running in an OE identity.

If you find that messages in one or more folders have gone missing, keep
reading...

Why it happens:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/probl...s.htm#mailgone
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx

Recovering the missing data: http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx (#2 and #4)
and http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=918069 (see Notes section under
Resolution)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DBXpress (faster, more powerful, with even greater functionality)
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Avoiding Such Corruption in Futu

- 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 Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/

fyldene wrote:
It has taken me ages to find this site, i have 2 key questions:-

1. how do i stop the reminder that compacting messgaes will ave disk space
i
have plenty and do not wish to compact messages.

2. because i said yes in the past i now have 00s of messages with a dbx
extension i cannot read, how do i get to the the stage where all my email
messages can be accessed in full - i do not have a problem of storage
space?