Messages not visible in Mail folders after restoring from Vista ba

[mrf]

After severe Vista Windows Boot Manager problems on 2/16/09, I restored PC to
initial configuaration with manufacturer's recovery disks (purchased 7/07).
Restored data included Windows Mail folder, with multiple subfolders, from
Vista backup set. Although a check of Windows Mail folders' properties shows
the messages are there, I can not see them. "Show all messages" is selected.
Also, the folders will not "hold" the "Columns" settings (if I select/reset
the columns to view, then open another mail folder, then go back to the first
one, no columns are visible or checked in the "Columns" window)

 

[Guest]

After severe Vista Windows Boot Manager problems on 2/16/09, I restored PC
to
initial configuaration with manufacturer's recovery disks (purchased
7/07).
Restored data included Windows Mail folder, with multiple subfolders, from
Vista backup set. Although a check of Windows Mail folders' properties
shows
the messages are there, I can not see them. "Show all messages" is
selected.
Also, the folders will not "hold" the "Columns" settings (if I
select/reset
the columns to view, then open another mail folder, then go back to the
first
one, no columns are visible or checked in the "Columns" window)

..
Check if there is now a Recovered Messages folder, and these messages
have now been moved to this folder or its subfolders.

Robert Miles

 

[mrf]

I actually recovered the Windows Mail folder twice since the first time, with
Mail mistakenly open in the background, there were backup files that could
not be recovered. The Recovered Messages folder has all of the subfolders it
that should be there, but a check of the Properties for each of those folders
shows "0 messages" while the folders that are in the same places they used to
be show the right number of messages under Properties, they just can't be
seen.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

In my experience, once Windows Mail has been corrupted, you will
often be plagued by repeated generation of 'Recovered Messages'
folders. If you want to be done with that problem once and for all,
upgrade to Windows Live Mail:

http://download.live.com/wlmail

 

[mrf]

Thanks for the guidance. Is the only way to "fix" Windows Mail to
reinstall/recover the hard disk initial configuration, reinstall the software
I use, and try again to recover the backup set I still have?

I am not familiar with Windows Live Mail. I do not use Messenger or any
other live capabilities. Can I recover the thousands of email messages in
Live Mail that I was trying to recover from my Vista backup set in Mail?

I appreciate your help.

mrf

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

You don't need to use any 'Live' capabilities with Windows Live Mail
(WLM) if you don't want to. Messenger doesn't come with it unless you
specifically mark that option in the WLM installer.
The WLM installer will automatically try to import all of your WM stuff.
I can't promise that it will recover all of your missing emails, but it
won't hurt to try. Should it not do the job, you can always uninstall it.

Alternatively, there is a rather laborious procedure of resetting WM.
See
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/62560-windows-mail-problems.html
Scroll down to the section "PROBLEM TWO: How to Backup and Reset
Windows Mail ". I can't provide additional support for that procedure
since I feel that it is way more trouble than it is worth (compared to
switching to WLM). As a famous song says, sometimes you have to
know when to fold...

 

[mrf]

Thanks for the info and the link. Since I had already backed up the email
and knew how to restore it from Vista backup, the only thing I needed was the
process to reset Mail through regedit - which I did. That seems to have
fixed the problem. Your experience and guidance were very helpful.

mrf

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Glad to hear I was of some help. Thanks for reporting back.