When I have closed Outlook Express 6 recently, I had been receiving a message
asking to compact. I had several thousand messages saved from the last year
and a half.

Last night, I made the mistake of clicking "yes" to this message, allowing
compaction. Sure enough, after the compaction, I have lost thousands of very
important messages that had been in my Inbox. Basically, all messages from
the middle of March, 2008 until a couple of weeks ago are just gone.

Some of those messages are very critical for my small business. I have to
recover them. What can I do? Thanks VERY much in advance for help!

Compacting was not a mistake. Thousands of messages in the Inbox was.

First, check the obvious. Go to the Inbox and click View | Current View |
Show All Messages.

If that was checked, then read on.

The two most common reasons for what you describe is disruption of the
compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), or bloated
folders. More on that below.

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

Why Mail Disappears:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone

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

Recovery tools:

If you are running XP/SP2, or SP3, and are fully patched, then you should
have a backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, (or possibly the message
store), copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first find the location
of the Message Store.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to it in
Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

Close OE and then in Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the
missing, or empty, folder and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted
later once you have successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message
Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact* same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

First, check if there is a bak file already in the message store. If there
is, and you removed the dbx file, go ahead and rename it to dbx.

If it isn't already in the message store, open the Recycle bin and right
click on the bak file for the folder in question and click Restore. Open the
message store back up and change the file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close
the message store and open OE. The messages should now be back in the
folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode is the best chance to recover
messages:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

And see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

A general warning to help avoid this in the futu

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupted. 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.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

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


"Desperate 4 help recovering OE messages" Desperate 4 help recovering OE
wrote in message
...
When I have closed Outlook Express 6 recently, I had been receiving a
message
asking to compact. I had several thousand messages saved from the last
year
and a half.

Last night, I made the mistake of clicking "yes" to this message, allowing
compaction. Sure enough, after the compaction, I have lost thousands of
very
important messages that had been in my Inbox. Basically, all messages
from
the middle of March, 2008 until a couple of weeks ago are just gone.

Some of those messages are very critical for my small business. I have to
recover them. What can I do? Thanks VERY much in advance for help!

Thanks VERY MUCH, Bruce. I had actually just found that same thing below and
tried it - with apparent success! I have my messages back! My business will
survive!

I do really appreciate your taking time to try to help me. You are a good
man!



"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

Compacting was not a mistake. Thousands of messages in the Inbox was.

First, check the obvious. Go to the Inbox and click View | Current View |
Show All Messages.

If that was checked, then read on.

The two most common reasons for what you describe is disruption of the
compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), or bloated
folders. More on that below.

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

Why Mail Disappears:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone

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

Recovery tools:

If you are running XP/SP2, or SP3, and are fully patched, then you should
have a backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, (or possibly the message
store), copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first find the location
of the Message Store.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to it in
Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

Close OE and then in Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the
missing, or empty, folder and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted
later once you have successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message
Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact* same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

First, check if there is a bak file already in the message store. If there
is, and you removed the dbx file, go ahead and rename it to dbx.

If it isn't already in the message store, open the Recycle bin and right
click on the bak file for the folder in question and click Restore. Open the
message store back up and change the file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close
the message store and open OE. The messages should now be back in the
folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode is the best chance to recover
messages:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

And see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

A general warning to help avoid this in the futu

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupted. 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.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

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


"Desperate 4 help recovering OE messages" Desperate 4 help recovering OE
wrote in message
...
When I have closed Outlook Express 6 recently, I had been receiving a
message
asking to compact. I had several thousand messages saved from the last
year
and a half.

Last night, I made the mistake of clicking "yes" to this message, allowing
compaction. Sure enough, after the compaction, I have lost thousands of
very
important messages that had been in my Inbox. Basically, all messages
from
the middle of March, 2008 until a couple of weeks ago are just gone.

Some of those messages are very critical for my small business. I have to
recover them. What can I do? Thanks VERY much in advance for help!

You're welcome. Now be sure to create some separate folders and back up OE
daily.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"Desperate 4 help recovering OE messages"
crosoft.com wrote in
message ...
Thanks VERY MUCH, Bruce. I had actually just found that same thing below
and
tried it - with apparent success! I have my messages back! My business
will
survive!

I do really appreciate your taking time to try to help me. You are a good
man!



"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

Compacting was not a mistake. Thousands of messages in the Inbox was.

First, check the obvious. Go to the Inbox and click View | Current View |
Show All Messages.

If that was checked, then read on.

The two most common reasons for what you describe is disruption of the
compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), or
bloated
folders. More on that below.

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

Why Mail Disappears:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone

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

Recovery tools:

If you are running XP/SP2, or SP3, and are fully patched, then you should
have a backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, (or possibly the
message
store), copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first find the
location
of the Message Store.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to it in
Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under
Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

Close OE and then in Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the
missing, or empty, folder and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted
later once you have successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the
Message
Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact*
same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new
folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

First, check if there is a bak file already in the message store. If
there
is, and you removed the dbx file, go ahead and rename it to dbx.

If it isn't already in the message store, open the Recycle bin and right
click on the bak file for the folder in question and click Restore. Open
the
message store back up and change the file extension from .bak to .dbx.
Close
the message store and open OE. The messages should now be back in the
folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete
the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode is the best chance to recover
messages:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

And see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

A general warning to help avoid this in the futu

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupted. 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.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant
layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

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


"Desperate 4 help recovering OE messages" Desperate 4 help recovering OE
wrote in message
...
When I have closed Outlook Express 6 recently, I had been receiving a
message
asking to compact. I had several thousand messages saved from the last
year
and a half.

Last night, I made the mistake of clicking "yes" to this message,
allowing
compaction. Sure enough, after the compaction, I have lost thousands
of
very
important messages that had been in my Inbox. Basically, all messages
from
the middle of March, 2008 until a couple of weeks ago are just gone.

Some of those messages are very critical for my small business. I have
to
recover them. What can I do? Thanks VERY much in advance for help!

good luck, no clue
"Desperate 4 help recovering OE messages" Desperate 4 help recovering OE
wrote in message
...
When I have closed Outlook Express 6 recently, I had been receiving a
message
asking to compact. I had several thousand messages saved from the last
year
and a half.

Last night, I made the mistake of clicking "yes" to this message, allowing
compaction. Sure enough, after the compaction, I have lost thousands of
very
important messages that had been in my Inbox. Basically, all messages
from
the middle of March, 2008 until a couple of weeks ago are just gone.

Some of those messages are very critical for my small business. I have to
recover them. What can I do? Thanks VERY much in advance for help!