Email Recovery

[Guest]

The end goal is to recover about 5 years worth of emails.

The story: My hard drive crashed on my old computer. Luckily or unluckily I
had the files backed up on an external hard drive using Windows One Care. The
unfortunate part about this is that Windows One Care is not compatible with a
64 bit operating system like the one I have on the computer I bought to
replace the one with the failed hard drive. So I could not load Windows One
Care on the new computer and restore the files there. So I bought a new hard
drive for the old computer and restored the files. I then tried to restore
the emails I had to Outlook Explorer. I had success for some files but not
for the larger of the backed up email. files.
When I look at the files in the .dbx file format using Windows Explorer I
see all the folders I had lost and files sizes for those folders that
indicate they shold be large enough to contain what I am missing. Using two
other email programs I was able to see some of the emails in these folders
and was able to determine the folders do indeed contain the emails I am
looking for. I used MailNavigator and Mail Recovery for Outlook Express. The
later would convert the emails in the DBX files (five email limit on the
trial version) to a new folder as an .EML file but would not copy the files
as an email to a Windows mail folder. Had the program worked for the trial of
5 emails I would have bought it to recover all of my emails. But it would not
so I am still looking for someway to recover about 5 years worth of emails.
When I try to use the Import utility on Windows mail if fails to see the
files I can see with Windows Explorer even when I deselect the read only
property of these file folders.

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

The end goal is to recover about 5 years worth of emails.

The story: My hard drive crashed on my old computer. Luckily or unluckily
I
had the files backed up on an external hard drive using Windows One Care.
The
unfortunate part about this is that Windows One Care is not compatible
with a
64 bit operating system like the one I have on the computer I bought to
replace the one with the failed hard drive. So I could not load Windows
One
Care on the new computer and restore the files there. So I bought a new
hard
drive for the old computer and restored the files. I then tried to restore
the emails I had to Outlook Explorer. I had success for some files but not
for the larger of the backed up email. files.
When I look at the files in the .dbx file format using Windows Explorer I
see all the folders I had lost and files sizes for those folders that
indicate they shold be large enough to contain what I am missing. Using
two
other email programs I was able to see some of the emails in these folders
and was able to determine the folders do indeed contain the emails I am
looking for. I used MailNavigator and Mail Recovery for Outlook Express.
The
later would convert the emails in the DBX files (five email limit on the
trial version) to a new folder as an .EML file but would not copy the
files
as an email to a Windows mail folder. Had the program worked for the trial
of
5 emails I would have bought it to recover all of my emails. But it would
not
so I am still looking for someway to recover about 5 years worth of
emails.
When I try to use the Import utility on Windows mail if fails to see the
files I can see with Windows Explorer even when I deselect the read only
property of these file folders.

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

Your message is very hard to understand. What is Outlook Explorer. You
can't have Outlook Express and Windows Mail on the same machine.
See http://www'oehelp.com/backup.aspx#oe2wm

 

[Guest]

Frank,

Thanks for answering. When I said Outlook Explorer I had intended to say
Outlook Express.

Let me see if I can make this clearer. I have two computers. One runs
Windows Vista the other Windows XP. The 5 years worth of emails I want to
restore to my Windows Vista machine I could not restore to either the machine
wth Windows Vista on it or Windows XP. Yet, using Windows Explorer I cans see
the DBX files of approximately the right size and when I used two 3rd party
programs in an attempt to retrieve these emails I was not able to do so
satisfactorily. I was able to copy 5 emails from one folder in the DBX file
format to another folder and in the process convert those 5 emails to the eml
format. But when I used this program, "Mail Recovery for Outlook Express" it
would not copy these same 5 email to my Windows Mail folder.

Basically, what I am trying to say is that I have 5 years worth of emails in
files in DBX file format and I am trying to get them into my Windows Mail
folders. Any help to accomplish this will be appreciated.

Rich

 

[R. C. White, MVP]

Hi, Rich.

That site that Frank gave you (http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#oe2wm -
correcting the slight typo) is the best source of information about Windows
Mail and Outlook Express.

The quickie version of how to get your files into WM is to copy all those
..dbx files, including the very important Folders.dbx, into a folder that you
can access from Vista. Then start WM and Import the messages from that
folder. You will, of course, need permission to access that folder;
otherwise, WM will tell you that there are no files there.

The Import may take a long time. If OE stored a thousand emails in a single
large .dbx file, WM will store them in a thousand separate small .eml files.
It takes a lot longer to process a thousand small files and one big one.
The benefit is that loss or corruption in a single message won't make you
lose the other 999 messages, like you might in OE.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[Guest]

Thanks RC,

http://tarbaby.blogdrive.com/archive/150.html

I am providing a link that shows to JPG files from screen captures of my
computer. The first shows most of the files in a folder I called "Outlook."
These are the DBX files in their various folders. Note there is a folder
there called "Folders" as well as a "Folders(1)." The second image is a
screen capture of my Windows Mail main screen after I tried to import the DBX
files in the Outlook folder above. Note the Imported Folder and Imported(1)
folder. These are the results of the two attempts I made to import the DBX
files. In the Imported Folder(1) was one message and that was the standard
canned message one typically receives, "Welcome to Outlook Express 6." No
other emails were imported.

Hope this helps to further explain the problem. I'll go to the reference you
provided to see if I can gather some more clues.

Thanks for your help.

Rich

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

Thanks RC,

http://tarbaby.blogdrive.com/archive/150.html

I am providing a link that shows to JPG files from screen captures of my
computer. The first shows most of the files in a folder I called
"Outlook."
These are the DBX files in their various folders. Note there is a folder
there called "Folders" as well as a "Folders(1)." The second image is a
screen capture of my Windows Mail main screen after I tried to import the
DBX
files in the Outlook folder above. Note the Imported Folder and
Imported(1)
folder. These are the results of the two attempts I made to import the
DBX
files. In the Imported Folder(1) was one message and that was the standard
canned message one typically receives, "Welcome to Outlook Express 6." No
other emails were imported.

Hope this helps to further explain the problem. I'll go to the reference
you
provided to see if I can gather some more clues.

Looks like Folders(1).dbx is corrupt while Folders.dbx is incomplete.

I would use DBXtract or DBXpress (www.oehelp.com) to extract the message to
an empty Windows folder (one Windows folder for each DBX file) and then
drag the messages from the Windows folder into a folder in an open instance
of WinMail.

 

[Steve Cochran]

Try opening one of the files with Notepad (in XP) and see if there is
anything in it that looks like a message piece. Those "recovered" files may
actually be full of zeroes and no messages may be in them, which is why the
recovery programs don't find anything.

Its possible DBXpress could extract the messages from the files, but not if
they are full of zeroes. If you could access the old hard drive (even if
reformatted) you'd have a better shot.

steve

Thanks RC,

http://tarbaby.blogdrive.com/archive/150.html

I am providing a link that shows to JPG files from screen captures of my
computer. The first shows most of the files in a folder I called
"Outlook."
These are the DBX files in their various folders. Note there is a folder
there called "Folders" as well as a "Folders(1)." The second image is a
screen capture of my Windows Mail main screen after I tried to import the
DBX
files in the Outlook folder above. Note the Imported Folder and
Imported(1)
folder. These are the results of the two attempts I made to import the
DBX
files. In the Imported Folder(1) was one message and that was the standard
canned message one typically receives, "Welcome to Outlook Express 6." No
other emails were imported.

Hope this helps to further explain the problem. I'll go to the reference
you
provided to see if I can gather some more clues.

Thanks for your help.

Rich

 

[DGuess]

http://www.oehelp.com

 

[Guest]

Frank,

Again thanks. I'll give that a try.

I understand about using DBXtract or DBXpress to extract the files to a
folder one for each DBX file.

Then I take it I drag the messages into a folder in an open instance of
Winmail. I do not understand what you mean about the last part, drag the
messages into an open instance of Winmail. Do you mean to litterally drag he
message to the folders on the Win Mail Program??

Rich

 

[Guest]

Steve,

Thanks for your reply. I have openned several of the emails and they do
contain actual emails and not just ones and zeros, at least none that I have
openend so far. I used a program call Mail Navigator that allowed me to see
the emails and like I said they are real emails. Granted though I did not
look at each of the more than 6000 plus emails I am attempting to recover.

I'm going to try the DBxtractor program mentioned in a reply here and see
what that does.

Thanks again for trying to help.

Rich

 

[Guest]

Thanks, DGuess. I'll use one of those programs and hope it solves my
problem.

Rich

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

Frank,

Again thanks. I'll give that a try.

I understand about using DBXtract or DBXpress to extract the files to a
folder one for each DBX file.

Then I take it I drag the messages into a folder in an open instance of
Winmail.
Yes.

I do not understand what you mean about the last part, drag the
messages into an open instance of Winmail. Do you mean to litterally drag
he
message to the folders on the Win Mail Program??

I mean with WinMail and Windows Explorer both opem, drag them from Windows
Explorer to a folder in the open WinMail.

 

[Steve Cochran]

DBXpress is better. <G>

steve

Steve,

Thanks for your reply. I have openned several of the emails and they do
contain actual emails and not just ones and zeros, at least none that I
have
openend so far. I used a program call Mail Navigator that allowed me to
see
the emails and like I said they are real emails. Granted though I did not
look at each of the more than 6000 plus emails I am attempting to recover.

I'm going to try the DBxtractor program mentioned in a reply here and see
what that does.

Thanks again for trying to help.

Rich

 

[Guest]

Ok I'll give that a try.

Thanks. I'll let you know how I made out.

Rich

 

[Ragsy]

--
ragsy

Your message is very hard to understand. What is Outlook Explorer. You
can't have Outlook Express and Windows Mail on the same machine.
See http://www'oehelp.com/backup.aspx#oe2wm

frank!

wow! and I thought i had trouble! you seem to have generally the same
problem i do except you have more experience that i have at the moment. with
you getting totally immersed in the flow of the software running
operationally to your liking and comming out ok, i am being overwhelmed by
the new wave of pc for application languages that are being applied today.
and the methodology that is applied behind these common day to day
operations. i am not thowing BS here. just give a little moore of what you
aare up against and maybe it will help me along the way?