Compacted messages now they are all gone

[Guest]

Help

Yesterday at shutdown I was asked if I wanted to compact my messages by
Outlook express V6.0. Now I open outlook express and most of my folders are
gone and all of the folders left are mostly empty.

How can I get my configuration back to how it was before the compact - I
have lots of stuff I was working on and its gone.

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE]

Help

Yesterday at shutdown I was asked if I wanted to compact my messages
by Outlook express V6.0. Now I open outlook express and most of my
folders are gone and all of the folders left are mostly empty.

How can I get my configuration back to how it was before the compact
- I have lots of stuff I was working on and its gone.

Did you turn off the machine before the compacting was finished? That would
do it.
In OE's Store Folder are there any DBT files? Are the DBX files for the
missing folders still there and are they greater than 137 KB?

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/

 

[PA Bear]

Why it happens:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx

Recovering data: http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DBXtract
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx

DBXtend (additional functionality)
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtend/Default.aspx

DBXpress (faster, more powerful, with even greater functionality)
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

OEX (OE Enhancement Program)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEX/Default.aspx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Avoid Such Corruption in Future:

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Disable Background Compacting [N/A in SP2] and frequently perform a manual
compact of all OE folders while "working offline". More at
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/maintain.htm.

- WinXP SP2 only: Do not shut down your machine while Windows is
automatically compacting your message store.

- Your anti-virus application's email scanning feature can also cause such
corruption. Disable it. It provides no additional protection.

--
OE6-specific newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress
OE General newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlookexpress.general

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Shell/User, Security), Aumha.org VSOP, DTS-L.org