Compacting folders

[cajun_mike]

I've reached the point where every time I exit OE I'm asked if I want to
compact my folders to save space. The answer is, and will be, no. I have
plenty of space, back up often, and run Outlook Express Quick Backup. No
sweat.

How can I stop the program from repeatedly asking me if I want to back up
the folders?

Thanks a million!

Mike

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I've reached the point where every time I exit OE I'm asked if I
want to compact my folders to save space. The answer is, and will
be, no. I have plenty of space, back up often, and run Outlook
Express Quick Backup. No sweat.

How can I stop the program from repeatedly asking me if I want to
back up the folders?

This compression and the mount of free space you have on your hard disk
drive really have little in common. You should allow Outlook Express to
compress its DATABASES (this is what it really wants to do.)

This should _help_ prevent any corruption in said databases and make them
more efficient. You are basically only told part of the story by the
message box - truthfully the part that did matter to most people when hard
disk drives were 10-20-30GB in size. ;-)

Just let the application do its job - it won't ask often if you let it do it
the first time it asks.

 

[Bruce Hagen]

[X-Posted to OE General]

How can you stop it? Let it compact and you won't be bothered for another
100 closings of OE.

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/community/columns/filecorruption.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 here:
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.

 

[cajun_mike]

One of the problems of compacting files are that I have folders under the
"Inbox" folders and then sub-folders under some of them for organizational
purposes. The compacting process doesn't handle this well and data is lost
during the compacting process, thus my reluctance to compact. Is there
something I can do about this issue?

Mike

[X-Posted to OE General]

How can you stop it? Let it compact and you won't be bothered for another
100 closings of OE.

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/community/columns/filecorruption.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 here:
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.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

I've reached the point where every time I exit OE I'm asked if I want to
compact my folders to save space. The answer is, and will be, no. I have
plenty of space, back up often, and run Outlook Express Quick Backup. No
sweat.

How can I stop the program from repeatedly asking me if I want to back up
the folders?

Thanks a million!

Mike

 

[Bruce Hagen]

If you read all of what I posted, you understand that if you never compact,
you will certainly lose all of your messages at some point.

Define "The compacting process doesn't handle this well".

Perhaps your folders need compacting more often. A manual compact a couple
of times a week may be the answer to your problems.

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.

If you keep the folder sizes reasonable as I suggested, you shouldn't have
any problems. That said, anyone that values their saved messages should back
them up regardless of the e-mail client they use.

This freeware tool backs up everything in OE in seconds. Disregard what is
written in red. That is referring to a different program.

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

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

One of the problems of compacting files are that I have folders under the
"Inbox" folders and then sub-folders under some of them for organizational
purposes. The compacting process doesn't handle this well and data is
lost
during the compacting process, thus my reluctance to compact. Is there
something I can do about this issue?

Mike

[X-Posted to OE General]

How can you stop it? Let it compact and you won't be bothered for another
100 closings of OE.

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/community/columns/filecorruption.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 here:
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.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

I've reached the point where every time I exit OE I'm asked if I want
to
compact my folders to save space. The answer is, and will be, no. I
have
plenty of space, back up often, and run Outlook Express Quick Backup.
No
sweat.

How can I stop the program from repeatedly asking me if I want to back
up
the folders?

Thanks a million!

Mike

 

[Leonard Grey]

I never lost data due to compacting in my OE days. And I had quite an
impressive array of sub-folders.

I compacted whenever prompted, sometimes on my own just for the heck of it.

The larger you allow your mailboxes to grow, the more your risk of
losing data. If you like big mailboxes (and bloated software), you want
Outlook.
---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

One of the problems of compacting files are that I have folders under the
"Inbox" folders and then sub-folders under some of them for organizational
purposes. The compacting process doesn't handle this well and data is lost
during the compacting process, thus my reluctance to compact. Is there
something I can do about this issue?

Mike

[X-Posted to OE General]

How can you stop it? Let it compact and you won't be bothered for another
100 closings of OE.

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/community/columns/filecorruption.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 here:
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.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

I've reached the point where every time I exit OE I'm asked if I want to
compact my folders to save space. The answer is, and will be, no. I have
plenty of space, back up often, and run Outlook Express Quick Backup. No
sweat.

How can I stop the program from repeatedly asking me if I want to back up
the folders?

Thanks a million!

Mike

 

[CBoom]

Listen carefully because no one else is telling you these things!:

1) when the dbx = databases of outlook express reach 2gb in size then
Outlook express crashes and you lose data!!

The way to avoid this is to make new folders along side the inbox and not
INSIDE the inbox, that way each new folder with have its OWN database file
(dbx) so more data will be spread out among more databases creating more
stability!

2) after moving or even deleting emails from outlook express the DBX files
DO NOT SHRINK UNLESS YOU COMPACT THEM!

even if you delete EVERY EMAIL the previous large size remains unless you
compact them!

so do what I said in step 1, create new folders along side the inbox, outbox
etc, and take the emails from the subfolders inside the inbox and place them
there...

then compact everything!

You can back up your dbx folder BEFORE doing all this if you are afraid..

if you don’t know how, post back and I will tell you!

One of the problems of compacting files are that I have folders under the
"Inbox" folders and then sub-folders under some of them for organizational
purposes. The compacting process doesn't handle this well and data is
lost
during the compacting process, thus my reluctance to compact. Is there
something I can do about this issue?

Mike

[X-Posted to OE General]

How can you stop it? Let it compact and you won't be bothered for another
100 closings of OE.

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/community/columns/filecorruption.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 here:
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.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

I've reached the point where every time I exit OE I'm asked if I want
to
compact my folders to save space. The answer is, and will be, no. I
have
plenty of space, back up often, and run Outlook Express Quick Backup.
No
sweat.

How can I stop the program from repeatedly asking me if I want to back
up
the folders?

Thanks a million!

Mike

 

[CBoom]

Listen carefully because no one else is telling you these things!:

1) when the dbx = databases of outlook express reach 2gb in size then
Outlook express crashes and you lose data!!

The way to avoid this is to make new folders along side the inbox and not
INSIDE the inbox, that way each new folder with have its OWN database file
(dbx) so more data will be spread out among more databases creating more
stability!

2) after moving or even deleting emails from outlook express the DBX files
DO NOT SHRINK UNLESS YOU COMPACT THEM!

even if you delete EVERY EMAIL the previous large size remains unless you
compact them!

so do what I said in step 1, create new folders along side the inbox, outbox
etc, and take the emails from the subfolders inside the inbox and place them
there...

then compact everything!

You can back up your dbx folder BEFORE doing all this if you are afraid..

if you don’t know how, post back and I will tell you!

 

[CBoom]

also you can try the new windows live mail
that is a desktop application

its part of the suite live but you can deselect the rest of the stuff

http://download.live.com

this has NO LIMITATION of file size since it doesn't use the old DBX
format..

this will import all your old emails but you can use both OE and live
mail... on the same computer if you want!

 

[Bruce Hagen]

I /did/ suggested a 100MB max, (my habit), as corruption usually occurs long
before the 2GB limit is reached.

The OP may have subfolders of the Inbox with subfolders under those
subfolders, but he cannot have a user created folder /inside/ the Inbox.
Just can't be done.

 

[Gerry]

"One of the problems of compacting files are that I have folders under
the "Inbox" folders and then sub-folders under some of them for
organizational purposes. "

Well change it! What you describe is not a good idea. Create your folder
structure as sub-folders of Local Folder. Your Inbox and Sent Items
folders should only hold messages awaiting relocation until you move
them on. Do not have any sub-folders of the Inbox.

You can control the Compacting process by doing it at a time that suits
before the count reaches 100.

In Outlook Express place the cursor on Local Folders and select File,
Work Offline followed by File, Folder, Compact All. Do not attempt to
interupt or stop the process until it has completed. Close Outlook
Express when it has completed.

After compacting check your Outlook Express folders are as they should
be. Then select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp to Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files.
Also select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the problems of compacting files are that I have folders under
the "Inbox" folders and then sub-folders under some of them for
organizational purposes. The compacting process doesn't handle this
well and data is lost during the compacting process, thus my
reluctance to compact. Is there something I can do about this issue?

Mike

[X-Posted to OE General]

How can you stop it? Let it compact and you won't be bothered for
another 100 closings of OE.

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/community/columns/filecorruption.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 here:
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.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

I've reached the point where every time I exit OE I'm asked if I
want to compact my folders to save space. The answer is, and will
be, no. I have plenty of space, back up often, and run Outlook
Express Quick Backup. No sweat.

How can I stop the program from repeatedly asking me if I want to
back up the folders?

Thanks a million!

Mike

 

[CBoom]

The OP may have subfolders of the Inbox with subfolders under those

subfolders, but he cannot have a user created folder /inside/ the Inbox.
Just can't be done.

I prefer to make things clear and simple for the OP to understand... I made
a simple image below

I don’t know what you are saying the above, above because I can have "a user
created folder /inside/ the inbox" as you can see in the screenshot below

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/3149578867_9921b84820.jpg?v=0

from the above screenshot the 2 folders there with names bad1 and bad2 is a
bad strategy, since each of those share the same and single dbx file of the
INBOX

while Good1 and Good2 each has its own dbx file and each dbx file has the
2gb limit. While the combined capacity of inbox+bad1+bad2 is only 2gb, the
combined capacity of Inbox+good1+good2 is 6GB!

To the OP, you should organize your data as GOOD1 and GOOD2 since each of
these have a separate dbx file, and not as BAD1 BAD2 since these share the
same dbx file with the INBOX

and as I said there is a limit of 2 gb for the dbx files.. outlook just cant
handle bigger size than than ...

and again I must point out, by deleting emails or moving folders without
compacting, you are NOT decreasing the size.

You have to compact after so that the dbx files shrink.

 

[Ron Sommer]

You are correct with 2) and not correct with 1).

OE may not crash when a dbx file reaches 2 GB. I doubt that the size will
ever reach 2 GB without the file becoming corrupt and messages being lost or
a new file being created. Large dbx files will take a long time to open.
OE uses a dbx file for each folder.
Folders.dbx keep track of how to display the folder structure. If
folders.dbx gets corrupted, then the folders in a folder may not display
properly.
--
Ronald Sommer

Listen carefully because no one else is telling you these things!:

1) when the dbx = databases of outlook express reach 2gb in size then
Outlook express crashes and you lose data!!

The way to avoid this is to make new folders along side the inbox and not
INSIDE the inbox, that way each new folder with have its OWN database file
(dbx) so more data will be spread out among more databases creating more
stability!

2) after moving or even deleting emails from outlook express the DBX files
DO NOT SHRINK UNLESS YOU COMPACT THEM!

even if you delete EVERY EMAIL the previous large size remains unless you
compact them!

so do what I said in step 1, create new folders along side the inbox,
outbox etc, and take the emails from the subfolders inside the inbox and
place them there...

then compact everything!

You can back up your dbx folder BEFORE doing all this if you are afraid..

if you don’t know how, post back and I will tell you!

One of the problems of compacting files are that I have folders under the
"Inbox" folders and then sub-folders under some of them for
organizational
purposes. The compacting process doesn't handle this well and data is
lost
during the compacting process, thus my reluctance to compact. Is there
something I can do about this issue?

Mike

[X-Posted to OE General]

How can you stop it? Let it compact and you won't be bothered for
another
100 closings of OE.

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/community/columns/filecorruption.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 here:
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.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


I've reached the point where every time I exit OE I'm asked if I want
to
compact my folders to save space. The answer is, and will be, no. I
have
plenty of space, back up often, and run Outlook Express Quick Backup.
No
sweat.

How can I stop the program from repeatedly asking me if I want to back
up
the folders?

Thanks a million!

Mike

 

[Gerry]

I agree with your comments about your Bad sub-folders. From my
experience it is the systemic folders, primarily Inbox, Sent Items and
Deleted Items. which are most prone to corruption. For this reason
having sub-folders for these folders is not good practice, especially
the Inbox. Having a large inbox is also not likely to help performance
as it takes time to load and many users have their system set to open to
the Inbox. Bruce puts a limit on folders of 100 mb but this can be way
too high. It all depends on the CPU and RAM of the computer.

I am not sure that implying that Outlook Express has a 2 gb limit on
folder size is helpful. Most systems do not have the resources to
properly handle a dbx folder anywhere near that size.

BTW I am not sure whether you think that inbox+bad1+bad2 exceeds your 2
gb capacity? If you load Inbox you load the contents of the inbox not
the contents of bad1+bad2 as well. You will get the folder structure of
bad1+bad2 but not their content.


--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry]

Ron

When folders.dbx corrupts you can delete it . You lose the folder
structure but regain your folders.
http://www.insideoe.com/files/store.htm

I just mentioned it for the benefit of others as I feel sure you are
already aware of this.

--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You are correct with 2) and not correct with 1).

OE may not crash when a dbx file reaches 2 GB. I doubt that the size
will ever reach 2 GB without the file becoming corrupt and messages
being lost or a new file being created. Large dbx files will take a
long time to open. OE uses a dbx file for each folder.
Folders.dbx keep track of how to display the folder structure. If
folders.dbx gets corrupted, then the folders in a folder may not
display properly.

Listen carefully because no one else is telling you these things!:

1) when the dbx = databases of outlook express reach 2gb in size then
Outlook express crashes and you lose data!!

The way to avoid this is to make new folders along side the inbox
and not INSIDE the inbox, that way each new folder with have its OWN
database file (dbx) so more data will be spread out among more
databases creating more stability!

2) after moving or even deleting emails from outlook express the DBX
files DO NOT SHRINK UNLESS YOU COMPACT THEM!

even if you delete EVERY EMAIL the previous large size remains
unless you compact them!

so do what I said in step 1, create new folders along side the inbox,
outbox etc, and take the emails from the subfolders inside the inbox
and place them there...

then compact everything!

You can back up your dbx folder BEFORE doing all this if you are
afraid.. if you don't know how, post back and I will tell you!

One of the problems of compacting files are that I have folders
under the "Inbox" folders and then sub-folders under some of them
for organizational
purposes. The compacting process doesn't handle this well and data
is lost
during the compacting process, thus my reluctance to compact. Is
there something I can do about this issue?

Mike


:

[X-Posted to OE General]

How can you stop it? Let it compact and you won't be bothered for
another
100 closings of OE.

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/community/columns/filecorruption.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 here:
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.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


I've reached the point where every time I exit OE I'm asked if I
want to
compact my folders to save space. The answer is, and will be,
no. I have
plenty of space, back up often, and run Outlook Express Quick
Backup. No
sweat.

How can I stop the program from repeatedly asking me if I want to
back up
the folders?

Thanks a million!

Mike

 

[CBoom]

I am not wrong unless microsoft is wrong also.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903095

"The maximum file size of the .dbx files that are used by Outlook Express is
2 gigabytes (GB).

Note Although the maximum file size is 2 GB, .dbx file performance can be
greatly influenced by the hardware resources on a computer. These resources
can include random access memory (RAM), disk space, and processor
resources."


I have hands on experience with this on multiple computers. When outlook
hits the 2gb limit it crashes all the time and becomes highly unstable

You don’t have to believe me, just google it

http://www.google.com/search?q=2gb+...t:*&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

You are correct with 2) and not correct with 1).

OE may not crash when a dbx file reaches 2 GB. I doubt that the size will
ever reach 2 GB without the file becoming corrupt and messages being lost
or a new file being created. Large dbx files will take a long time to
open.
OE uses a dbx file for each folder.
Folders.dbx keep track of how to display the folder structure. If
folders.dbx gets corrupted, then the folders in a folder may not display
properly.
--
Ronald Sommer

Listen carefully because no one else is telling you these things!:

1) when the dbx = databases of outlook express reach 2gb in size then
Outlook express crashes and you lose data!!

The way to avoid this is to make new folders along side the inbox and not
INSIDE the inbox, that way each new folder with have its OWN database
file (dbx) so more data will be spread out among more databases creating
more stability!

2) after moving or even deleting emails from outlook express the DBX
files DO NOT SHRINK UNLESS YOU COMPACT THEM!

even if you delete EVERY EMAIL the previous large size remains unless you
compact them!

so do what I said in step 1, create new folders along side the inbox,
outbox etc, and take the emails from the subfolders inside the inbox and
place them there...

then compact everything!

You can back up your dbx folder BEFORE doing all this if you are afraid..

if you don’t know how, post back and I will tell you!

One of the problems of compacting files are that I have folders under
the
"Inbox" folders and then sub-folders under some of them for
organizational
purposes. The compacting process doesn't handle this well and data is
lost
during the compacting process, thus my reluctance to compact. Is there
something I can do about this issue?

Mike


:

[X-Posted to OE General]

How can you stop it? Let it compact and you won't be bothered for
another
100 closings of OE.

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/community/columns/filecorruption.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 here:
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.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


I've reached the point where every time I exit OE I'm asked if I want
to
compact my folders to save space. The answer is, and will be, no. I
have
plenty of space, back up often, and run Outlook Express Quick Backup.
No
sweat.

How can I stop the program from repeatedly asking me if I want to
back up
the folders?

Thanks a million!

Mike

 

[Ron Sommer]

Your reference does not say that OE will crash when the file size reaches 2
GB.

The part that you were wrong was implying that a folder inside of another
folder does not have a separate dbx file.
--
Ronald Sommer

I am not wrong unless microsoft is wrong also.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903095

"The maximum file size of the .dbx files that are used by Outlook Express
is 2 gigabytes (GB).

Note Although the maximum file size is 2 GB, .dbx file performance can be
greatly influenced by the hardware resources on a computer. These
resources can include random access memory (RAM), disk space, and
processor resources."


I have hands on experience with this on multiple computers. When outlook
hits the 2gb limit it crashes all the time and becomes highly unstable

You don’t have to believe me, just google it

http://www.google.com/search?q=2gb+...t:*&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

You are correct with 2) and not correct with 1).

OE may not crash when a dbx file reaches 2 GB. I doubt that the size
will ever reach 2 GB without the file becoming corrupt and messages being
lost or a new file being created. Large dbx files will take a long time
to open.
OE uses a dbx file for each folder.
Folders.dbx keep track of how to display the folder structure. If
folders.dbx gets corrupted, then the folders in a folder may not display
properly.
--
Ronald Sommer

Listen carefully because no one else is telling you these things!:

1) when the dbx = databases of outlook express reach 2gb in size then
Outlook express crashes and you lose data!!

The way to avoid this is to make new folders along side the inbox and
not INSIDE the inbox, that way each new folder with have its OWN
database file (dbx) so more data will be spread out among more databases
creating more stability!

2) after moving or even deleting emails from outlook express the DBX
files DO NOT SHRINK UNLESS YOU COMPACT THEM!

even if you delete EVERY EMAIL the previous large size remains unless
you compact them!

so do what I said in step 1, create new folders along side the inbox,
outbox etc, and take the emails from the subfolders inside the inbox and
place them there...

then compact everything!

You can back up your dbx folder BEFORE doing all this if you are
afraid..

if you don’t know how, post back and I will tell you!




One of the problems of compacting files are that I have folders under
the
"Inbox" folders and then sub-folders under some of them for
organizational
purposes. The compacting process doesn't handle this well and data is
lost
during the compacting process, thus my reluctance to compact. Is there
something I can do about this issue?

Mike


:

[X-Posted to OE General]

How can you stop it? Let it compact and you won't be bothered for
another
100 closings of OE.

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/community/columns/filecorruption.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 here:
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.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


I've reached the point where every time I exit OE I'm asked if I
want to
compact my folders to save space. The answer is, and will be, no.
I have
plenty of space, back up often, and run Outlook Express Quick
Backup. No
sweat.

How can I stop the program from repeatedly asking me if I want to
back up
the folders?

Thanks a million!

Mike

 

[Bruce Hagen]

I have to respectfully disagree with you. Bad1 is a subfolder of the Inbox
and Bad2 is a subfolder of Bad1. If you look in the messages store there
will be a Bad1.dbx file and a bad2.dbx file. They are not inside the Inbox
and do not share the same dbx file.

I also respectfully disagree with Gerry. There is absolutely nothing wrong
with having a subfolder located under /any/ OE folder, user created or
default.

 

[Gerry]

Bruce

Would you agree that non-system ( user created ) folders rarely corrupt?
The exception would be excessively large files, which the system is
struggling to handle.

The problem with sub-folders of the Inbox is that if the inbox corrupts
then most users do not know how to recover the contents of the
sub-folder.


--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Bruce Hagen]

The Inbox, Sent Items and Deleted items are more prone to corruption than
user created folders largely because they are accessed more often.

I disagree with the second statement. If the Inbox alone becomes corrupted,
there is no reason to recover messages in the subfolders as they were not
affected and their messages were not lost. Like I said. Every folder has its
own dbx file regardless of how the folder tree is structured.