can't empty deleted items folder

[Danny Shamoon]

I'm using Office XP w/OL2002. I can't empty my deleted
items folder. I get the error message that "The messaging
interface has encountered an unknown error. If the
problem persists, restart Outlook." I've run scanpst with
no reported errors. I had just installed SP2, but don't
know if that has anything to do with it. I try to delete
items individually with the same same results. Any help
is appreicated.
Thanks
Danny

 

[Lorien]

First, OL 2000 now has SP-3, so perhaps you should catch up on the hotfixes,
patches, and service packs.

Is it possible the deleted items folder is secured from deletion? Are you
logged on as an administrator when you try to do it?

How big is the .pst file? It has a 2GB max and begins to act weird as it
approaches that point. If you can, you might try to archive some older
files to see if that reduces the size enough to allow you delete the items.

Can you move items from the deleted items folder - by which I mean, copy
them to another location and they no longer exist in the original one. If
so, create a TEMP folder, move the deleted items to the temp folder, move to
the temp folder, select all, hold down the shift key and click delete.
That'll bypass the Deleted Items box so you don't get caught in a loop. I
doubt you'll be able to do this anyway, because it's rare to have the
ability to move and not the ability to delete.

BTW, with all these problems, I'd make sure I had a backup copy of the .pst
files on another machine "just in case."

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Lorien... Thanks for the reply and help. My pst file is
178Mb big. I am the administrator and hadn't made any
changes except for doing the Sp2 pack. Now I can't even
delete messages from my Inbox, I get the error message "
Errors have been detected in the PST file. Quit all mail-
enabled applications and then use the Inbox Repair Tool"
When I run scanpst it shows no errors, but have 13k and
some sub-directories. How do I get rid of those? I don't
do any archives, so I don't understand why I have Inboes
with messages from last year.
Thanks again for the help.
Danny