Two problems - invisible folders and error 0x800C0155

[Guest]

My 32-bit Vista SP2 computer now has Windows Mail problems where most of the
Local Folders (all of them except the Inbox) are invisible to Windows Mail.
I've checked the file structure, and found that the files for the missing
folders (probably over 2 million of them) are still present, but Windows
Mail won't let me see them.

One of my 64-bit Vista SP2 computer now shows the 0x800C0155 error every
time I try to start Windows Mail, and the program won't start. I'm running
a rather long program on that machine I don't want to interrupt (about 40
CPU hours since the last checkpoint; about 70 more CPU hours before that),
or I'd try rebooting it.

My other 64-bit Vista SP2 computer has not had a working internet connection
for the last month.

I've had enough backup problems that all my backups for the last month have
failed, on all three machines.

Any idea how to fix these problems?

Any idea where Vista keeps the list of successful backups so I can tell my
antivirus program to stop interfering with the normal use of that file,
since I've seen signs that that causes at least one of the backup problems?

The latest problems started about the time I ran the WMUtil program on the
first two machines to look for zero-length newsgroup posts files; it found
close to 29000 of them, which I told it to delete.

It's getting late at night, so more details tomorrow if needed.

Robert Miles

 

[Gary VanderMolen [MVP]]

Have you tried the other functions in the WMUtil program, particularly
"Repair Database"?

 

[Guest]

Yes. No change in the problems after the File Statistics function, the
Compact
Database function, and thr Repair Database function, on either of the first
two
machines.

Did find something interesting on the 32-bit machine - it has two sets of
files
for at least the Local Folders, one apparantly unchanged since I tried to
clean up the database manually several months ago by deleting a few of the
largest files, only to find that at least one of them was the index file
that
Windows Mail uses to find the other files. Also, clicking on File, then
Identities apparantly makes Windows Mail find the second set and offer me
the chance to import it, although without telling me whether this will
cancel
all the deletions of posts I've done since then.

Got an internet connection to the third machine, and am planning to buy a
cable to make it more permanent.

Robert Miles

Have you tried the other functions in the WMUtil program, particularly
"Repair Database"?

 

[Gary VanderMolen [MVP]]

About the only suggestion I have is to install Windows Live Mail
and see if it finds the missing messages when it imports from WM.

http://download.live.com/wlmail

 

[Guest]

Any idea whether installing Windows Live Mail will create about as many
new files as those already in the Windows Mail database, or whether
it's possible to tell it to import just a few of the folders at a time? I
seem
to already have enough files to cause problems with backups.

Robert Miles

About the only suggestion I have is to install Windows Live Mail
and see if it finds the missing messages when it imports from WM.

http://download.live.com/wlmail

 

[Gary VanderMolen [MVP]]

By default, the first time WLM runs it will import all data from WM.
The only way to avoid that is to temporarily hide or move the
WM message store. Then, on a subsequent opening of WLM
you can do a selective manual import.

 

[Guest]

It looks like I found a fix for the invisible local folders problem.

1. Use the normal procedure for creating a local folder; any name
other than the names of the invisible folders.

2. Move a few messages to the new folder.

3. Mark all the messages in the new folder unread.

This may not work immediately, but keep checking for at least
half an hour.

Still no fix for the other problem; still waiting for the very long
program to finish so I can catch up on Vista updates and
reboot, to see if that works.

Robert Miles

By default, the first time WLM runs it will import all data from WM.
The only way to avoid that is to temporarily hide or move the
WM message store. Then, on a subsequent opening of WLM
you can do a selective manual import.

 

[Gary VanderMolen [MVP]]

Very strange fix! There is no logical reason why that should work.
But there was no logical reason for your invisible folders either.

 

[Guest]

I forgot to let you know when the very long program finished,
after running for about 300 hours. For now, I've kept any
more of those from starting.

Updating and rebooting did not help.

However, I found that no full scan antivirus runs and no
Disk Defragmenter runs had completed for months, so I shut
down BOINC on each of the two desktop machines long
enough to do a separate manual run of each - a few days
for each program.

Not much improvement until I also left each machine idle
overnight, which seemed to be enough for an indexing
program to catch up.

Robert Miles

Very strange fix! There is no logical reason why that should work.
But there was no logical reason for your invisible folders either.

 

[joseph mcglade]

I forgot to let you know when the very long program finished,
after running for about 300 hours. For now, I've kept any
more of those from starting.

Updating and rebooting did not help.

However, I found that no full scan antivirus runs and no
Disk Defragmenter runs had completed for months, so I shut
down BOINC on each of the two desktop machines long
enough to do a separate manual run of each - a few days
for each program.

Not much improvement until I also left each machine idle
overnight, which seemed to be enough for an indexing
program to catch up.

Robert Miles

Very strange fix! There is no logical reason why that should work.
But there was no logical reason for your invisible folders either.