lost outlook express

Mumstheword

Hi,
We have a missing outlook express problem.
The affected hard drive was not working, so we have sorted that out and now have it running on another pc as a seperate hard drive. But outlook express doesn't appear to be there any more.

1- anyone know where it might be and how to recover it with the existing emails still there? (backing up lesson is about to be delivered to the owner of the hard drive!!)
or
2-If we install OE again, will it recover the emails from the OE which used to be on there?

Thanks!

scotty

Search the harddrive for a file called Inbox.dbx (make sure you have enabled "View hidden and system files"). If you find this file you have found the directory where all emails are stored. Before you do anything else, backup all the files in that directory.

If you still have the .dbx files you can recover the emails. Post back if you still have the fffiles and I can give you details of how to recover the emails.

Mumstheword

Thanks scotty. That search brings nothing up (even searching for .dbx brings nothing up). I have tried that on my laptop too (which is working fine, btw!) and nothing comes up either. How do I enable 'view hidden and system files'?

ianonline

Mumstheword wrote:

How do I enable 'view hidden and system files'?

When you go to search, there should be tick boxes under "more advanced options" (with Win XP) - they should be checked by default but just make sure.

I know I'm probably stating the obvious here, but there should be an Outlook Express folder within the "program files" folder - presumably this is what you mean by it "doesn't appear to be there any more".

Assuming that the folder isn't there, then you might still be able to find the message store folder by doing a search as suggested by scotty - by default, it is a hidden system folder burried deep somewhere within Local settings > Application data ....... (ie unless it has been changed within the OE settings). Try searching for a folder called "outlook express" ie by selecting "folder" under "file type" in the search settings.

If you do manage to locate the message store folder then you can simply import all your original emails once you have reinstalled OE (ie File > Import > Messages).

scotty

In Explorer, select Tools\Folder options\View. The view hidden files option is somewhere in that list.

Mumstheword

Thanks Ianonline, I enabled 'view hidden...' and did a test search on my (working properly) laptop. It still doesn't find anything when searching for Inbox.dbx.

Any ideas where I am going wrong?

Mumstheword

thanks scotty, I've done that aswell on my working laptop and it still wont bring up any results under a search for Inbox.dbx, although that pc has got OE working properly

ianonline

have you tried doing a search for a folder called "outlook express"? (see my earlier post - I have since edited it so you may not have read that bit first time you read it !)

Mumstheword

I have done a search for outlook express now, and it finds that, so will do a search for that, with hidden folders view enabled, on the other hard drive, and let you know how I get on.
Ianonline, I did think I had forgotten something when I re-read your post and saw the 'search outlook express' comments....didn't realise you'd only just added them! lol


Big thanks!

ianonline

If you've tried the search on your laptop, there should be one OE folder within "program files" and another ("hidden") one within "documents and settings > local setting > application data....." which is the message store (ie the one you need to recover your emails on your other hard drive)

Mumstheword

The search gives results for:
one in program files,
2 in documents and settings
1 in windows

are any of these what i need?