Outlook Express Ate My Folders

alanrowell

Did a compact, reopened OE, no emails. Checked the store folder and the original folders are still there along with "(1)" versions.

Tried DBXtract 4.5 to recover them - it failed.

Tried tricking OE by creating a new folder and copying a lost folder to it - didn't work, though if I rename the folder in OE it renames the lost folder

Tried Thunderbird - recognised the folder, didn't recognise the emails.

Any ideas?

alanclose

If the original folders are there move them to a new folder. Then delete the empty folders and restart OE. This will create fresh new folders. Then import the old messages.

Pick import from an oe6 store directory and point it towards the folder you saved your old folders in

alanrowell

Tried that, got "No messages can be found in this folder or another application is running that has the required files open".

alanclose

do you still get that message if you have just restarted the pc? Have you put the large dbx files in a completely new folder? Also have you renamed the files to return them to their original name (take the 1 of the end)

alanrowell

Yes
Yes
If you rename the (1) files when OE is closed then when OE reopens it creates a new (1) file

alanrowell

Just to add, I've managed to successfully load an old .dbx into OE using the following method

1) Open OE
2) Create a new folder (for example "newfolder")
3) Open the new folder in OE - this creates it in the OE folder
4) Close OE
5) Take a copy of the old .dbx, put it into a different folder to the OE folder & rename it as the foldername in 2)
6) copy the file in 5) to the OE folder overwriting the new folder

alanclose

I would close oe

make sure all the old dbx files with the messages in them are in a temp folder of the c:\drive

make sure they are named inbox.dbx etc without any numbers in them.

delete all the files from the original folder

open OE

Go to file import import oe6 and import from an oe6 store directory
point the browser at the temp folder of the C:\

and it should import all your old messages

alanrowell

Doesn't work, same message

alanclose

Searching the internet it suggest checking that the files aren't read only if you get that error message, I can't see how they could have been set to read only though

Chippy_Minton

alanrowell wrote: »

Did a compact, reopened OE, no emails. Checked the store folder and the original folders are still there along with "(1)" versions.

When you say 'no emails', do you mean your personal folders are showing in OE, but are empty, or your personal folders aren't showing at all?

Exit OE. Move the * (1).dbx files from the Store Folder to another folder, leaving just the normal *.dbx files. Delete Folders.dbx. Start OE and it should create a new Folders.dbx file and your emails should be back. You'll have to recreate your personal folder hierarchy.

Also, check the Recycle Bin for <folderName>.bak files. These are copies of the .dbx files before OE attempted to compact them, and can be recovered if necessary.

alanrowell

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

When you say 'no emails', do you mean your personal folders are showing in OE, but are empty, or your personal folders aren't showing at all?...

...Also, check the Recycle Bin for <folderName>.bak files. These are copies of the .dbx files before OE attempted to compact them, and can be recovered if necessary.

Folders were showing but no emails - could even rename the folders and it was renaming the folders that should have had the emails in

HOWEVER your idea for checking the recycle bin worked wonderfully.

I copied them all to a separate folder, then copied the folders I really needed, renaming them to x<foldername>.dbx.

I then went into OE and created folders with those names, opened them and then closed OE.

I then copied the x<foldername>.dbx files to the equivalent in the OE folder, opened OE and the missing emails had been restored.

Think a backup is called for