| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 74827 | 2006-12-06 22:37:00 | vanished emails? | ecurb (3669) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 504673 | 2006-12-06 22:37:00 | In Outlook express when I receive an email I stick it in one of about 6 different folders. I've just noticed that one folder has lost all its emails from 17 November to today. Emails from 1 march to 17 Nov are still there. What is going on? Possible causes? 1 When I shut down last night I compacted the folders? 2 Folder sze is too big at 905MB? 3 Recently upgraded tom IE7 but still on OE6? 4 Virus? I've got PC-cillin virus protection, firewall etc and regularly run spybot. Regular virus scans always show nothing 5 I've been getting a lot of message undeliverable emails but assume they are the usual spam rather than actually originating from this computer Any suggestions on the cause of the problem and more importantly is there any way to get them back? Thanks in anticipation |
ecurb (3669) | ||
| 504674 | 2006-12-06 23:58:00 | Do not panic,someone will tell you how to recover them.I used to use XP and had a similar problem.All emails are stored "somewhere" in a different format and I can not remember the .xxx to find them but I do know a small app has to be downloaded from the net to enable you to read them and restore them. | kjaada (253) | ||
| 504675 | 2006-12-07 01:20:00 | The files you search for are *dbx and they will be in gobbldy gook unless you down load the reader thing. | kjaada (253) | ||
| 504676 | 2006-12-07 03:36:00 | The files are DBX files and the "reader thing" that kjaada refers to is DBXtract. A search with Google will find it but I would be surprised if it manages to restore the files. I suspect that the cause of your problem is that the size of the folder is way too big. Outlook Express was never designed to handle large emails as it was created back in the day when most emails were small text emails, not containing lots of formatting and attachments as they often are now. If you don't want this becoming a regular event I would suggest that your Inbox be pruned somewhat significantly. |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
| 504677 | 2006-12-07 08:55:00 | I think I've found the reason. Searching the web I've found that apparently when you shut down your computer sometimes it asks if you want to compact message folders. If you say yes the computer shuts down in the middle of compacting and you lose emails. Microsoft has put out a patch for this but its not part of the automatic patches that you get! The patch makes a backup of the dbx file first. Of course the simple way is always wait until folders are compacted before shutting down!! I've tried a few restore utilities and none find my two weeks of missing emails so it looks like they are gone unless someone has a bright idea. |
ecurb (3669) | ||
| 504678 | 2006-12-07 09:51:00 | Yes, you can lose emails if the compacting process is interrupted . The best way to compact mailboxes is to change OE to "offline" mode, compact the folders then change to "online" again . This ensures that mail will not download whilst OE is doing its business and cause problems . I wasn't aware that MS now have a patch for this so thanks for sharing that information . |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
| 504679 | 2006-12-09 06:20:00 | Patch is at www.microsoft.com | ecurb (3669) | ||
| 1 | |||||