Outlook Express and compact messages...

[Guest]

I get this message when I close outlook...."To free up disk space, Outlook
Express can compact messages..." NOW I cannot find ANY of the folders and
messages... HELP!

 

[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.

- WinXP SP2 only: If your machine is fully up-to-date at Windows Update,
installing the following patch (KB918766) will help to avoid such data loss
in the future:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=86b68a78-f325-4a95-98c2-98af2256ccc3

This patch will be included in the next Cumulative Update for Outlook
Express/WinXP SP2.

- 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

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE]

I get this message when I close outlook...."To free up disk space, Outlook
Express can compact messages..." NOW I cannot find ANY of the folders and
messages... HELP!

Compacting of folders is necessary or they will become corrupted or else so
large that they can no longer be used. Deleting a message does not reclaim
the space. The message is marked as deleted but is still there until the
folder is compacted. That is why programs such as DBXtract work.

If a user closes compacting while compacting is in progress data loss will
probably occur.

Open OE and close it and let it compact the messages. After doing this it
won't ask again until you have closed OE 100 times.

If you have WinXP SP2 you will want this update:
There are two articles, KB918766 and KB918651, but the latter is not
currently available. The download link is
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...78-f325-4a95-98c2-98af2256ccc3&DisplayLang=en

It places the backup in Recycled, overwriting any earlier backup of the
same folder(s). To use it, copy it to the store folder, delete the one you
want to replace and then rename the BAK file to DBX. (It's a bit more
complicated if the messed up DBX file isn't there or contains messages that
are hew that you want to keep.