It won't do any harm, but unless the OP already has that program, I
wouldn't advise spending the money.
DBXtract relies on the messages to be in the dbx files, which they
are no longer in this case.
DBXpress can read the fragments on the HDD and may retrieve messages
that are no longer in the dbx files.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA
Bruce
So it is at least worth checking in the way I suggested. It can do
harm and might help.
--
Regards.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce Hagen wrote:
Usually, the corruption is already present, but made obvious when
you compact. And by the OP's own admission, he compacted again
after noticing the missing messages.
So Bruce it could depend on the exact point when the corruption
occurred. You gave two common reasons for corruption, one being
disruption of the compacting process. Lethal thinks it involves
compaction but if he was in a hurry he could have missed noticing
the problem if it had already occurred or even after compaction
had been completed.. We shall see. --
Regards.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce Hagen wrote:
Not on folders that have been compacted. I pointed that out to
the OP in my lengthy canned reply.
Steve
Will what I suggested no longer work?
--
Regards.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steve Cochran wrote:
If the Recycle bin is empty, then your only chance of recovery
(without a backup) is DBXpress (
www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/) which
has an extract from disk feature that will bypass the file
system and analyze the entire hard drive for messages. If
they are still there on the drive, it will recover them, but
there is no way of knowing without running the program.
steve
Hi Thanks for the link.
Yes by compacting I meant the same thing as compressing.
The thread I refer to was called 'compacting
folders'...started in dec 2008
with about 32 posts...including a number from yourself.
As I followed closely your prior advise, I found nothing of
assistance in the recycle bin, (as I subsequently compacted,
and this process evidently did
recompact the same folder (where I lost the emails from).
I do have a 'genie' outlook backuip from 19/12...I may have a
closer look at
this
regards
:
[X-Posted]
Here is the group you need.
Outlook Express General newsgroup:
In your newsreader:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlookexpress.general
On the Web:
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...px?dg=microsoft.public.outlookexpress.general
What "compacting thread"?
You compacted and then compressed? Do you mean the same
thing? OE creates bak files whenever you compact. While they
should
be in the Recycle Bin, they may be in the message store.
Have you looked there? System Restore does not restore any
missing files whether they be
from OE or
another program.
DBXpress is the only program available to the general public
that has the capability of reading directly from the hard
drive disk, which is your only
option after compacting, unless you have bak files or a
backup of your own.
<Repost>
First, check the obvious. Go to the Inbox and click View |
Current View | Show All Messages.
If that was checked, then read on.
The two most common reasons for what you describe is
disruption of the compacting process, (never touch anything
until it's finished), or bloated
folders. More on that below.
Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact
Why Mail Disappears:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone
About File Corruption:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx
Recovery tools:
If you are running XP/SP2, or SP3, and are fully patched,
then you should have a backup of your dbx files in the
Recycle Bin, (or possibly the message
store), copied as bak files.
To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first
find the location
of the Message Store.
Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the
location of your Outlook Express files. Write the location
down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer or, copy and
paste it into Start
Run. In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as
hidden. To
view
these files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files
and Folders under Start
Control Panel | Folder Options | View.
Close OE and then in Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file
for the missing, or empty, folder and drag it to the
Desktop. It can be deleted later once you have successfully
restored the bak file. Minimize the Message
Store.
Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with
the *exact* same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the
.bak. Eg: If the file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be
named Saved. Open the new folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty,
continue on to the next step.
First, check if there is a bak file already in the message
store. If there
is, and you removed the dbx file, go ahead and rename it to
dbx. If it isn't already in the message store, open the Recycle
bin and right click on the bak file for the folder in
question and click Restore. Open the
message store back up and change the file extension from
.bak to .dbx. Close
the message store and open OE. The messages should now be
back in the folder.
If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead
and delete the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.
If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the
Recycle Bin, then: DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode is
the best chance to recover
messages:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx
And see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4
A general warning to help avoid this in the future:
Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will
eventually become corrupted. Create your own user defined
folders for storing mail and move your mail to them. Empty
Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user created
folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is
feasible. Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus
program. It is a
redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and
receiving, and causes a multitude of problems such as
time-outs, account setting changes and has even been
responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V program
will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3 And backup often.
Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA
Hi Bruce,
Thanks for the detailed and prompt response.
I was unable to find an outlook express general
newsgroup....are you able
to
provide a link?...may I also find more detial there?
FYI, I am running sp3 'fully patched' (sorry for omission).
Following guidance from the others in the 'compacting'
thread...I ran another 'compress' before lodging this help
request (?)...this may have led
to the fact that there was no .dbx or .bak copies in the
recycle bin. I also tried a system restore to a time (today)
well prior to the time of
the issue.
To no avail.
It appears that loosing part of the .dbx file cannot be
addressed (?) (As a lay user...am I correct in assume that
.bak file are backup copies
of
a .dbx file?)
I will read the links and consider dbxpress, though $USD's
are an issue.
Is there another tool?
Thanks again for your advice.
regards
:
[Crossposted to the Outlook Express General newsgroup]
First, check the obvious. Go to the Inbox and click View |
Current View |
Show All Messages.
If that was checked, then read on.
The two most common reasons for what you describe is
disruption of the compacting process, (never touch anything
until it's finished), or bloated
folders. More on that below.
Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact
Why Mail Disappears:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone
About File Corruption:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx
Recovery tools:
If you are running XP/SP2, or SP3, and are fully patched,
then you should
have a backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, (or
possibly the message
store), copied as bak files.
To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first
find the location
of the Message Store.
Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal
the location of
your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and
navigate to it in
Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.
In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden.
To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and
Folders under Start
Control Panel | Folder Options | View.
Close OE and then in Windows Explorer, click on the dbx
file for the missing, or empty, folder and drag it to the
Desktop. It can be deleted
later once you have successfully restored the bak file.
Minimize the Message
Store.
Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with
the *exact*
same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the
.bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved.
Open the new folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty,
continue on to
the next step.
First, check if there is a bak file already in the message
store. If there
is, and you removed the dbx file, go ahead and rename it to
dbx. If it isn't already in the message store, open the
Recycle bin
and right
click on the bak file for the folder in question and click
Restore. Open
the
message store back up and change the file extension from
.bak to .dbx. Close
the message store and open OE. The messages should now be
back in the folder.
If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead
and delete the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.
If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the
Recycle Bin, then:
DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode is the best chance
to recover messages:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx
And see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4
A general warning to help avoid this in the future:
Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will
eventually become corrupted. Create your own user defined
folders for storing mail and move
your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly.
Keep user created
folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is
feasible. Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus
program. It is a
redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and
receiving, and causes a multitude of problems such as
time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your
up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For
more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3
And backup often.
Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA
message
Hi Guys & Gals,
I have read the numerous threads from the 'compacting
folders' topic of
just
before the new year. This 'corruption' has unfortunately
occured to me...(outlook express had just finished
compacting, I went back in and
have
lost the last 6 weeks emails from my inbox, only).
This also occured in a 'controlled environment' some 2
months ago (following
installation and use of Iobit's 'advanced system care').
Never again.
Anyhoo, what the above mentioned thread did not allude
too, was the likelyhood/possibliity of recovery of these
files (in my case emails).
I have now adopted a regular OE backup schedule, and as
suggested copied
most of the inbox/sent items to a seperate folder (under
the locall folder
menu, just to be sure).
As usually requested
I have:
Intel core2 Duo 2.233
2gb RAM
NVIDIA geForce 8600 GT
I run Spybot S&D, Adaware, AVG Free 8, CCleaner.
thanks
