Lost all mail from Outlook Express

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Guest

I had all my mail on Outlook Express. Then my system crashed big time and it
was necessary to reinstall Windows XP home edition.

I've since set up my POP account again but discovered that I do not seem to
be able to find the almost 300 messages that were in my OE inbox!

Have I lost them all completely? Are they likely to be anywhere else? This
is a major, major problem if I've lost all that.

Any advice greatfully appreciated.

Alison
 
Alison said:
I had all my mail on Outlook Express. Then my system crashed big time and
it
was necessary to reinstall Windows XP home edition.

I've since set up my POP account again but discovered that I do not seem
to
be able to find the almost 300 messages that were in my OE inbox!

Have I lost them all completely? Are they likely to be anywhere else?
This
is a major, major problem if I've lost all that.

Any advice greatfully appreciated.
Click to expand...


Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store folder will tell you where OE is
currently storing it's data. Make note of that.

Now go to Start | Search | All Files and Folders | More Advanced Options and
set it to Search hidden files and folders. Look for Inbox.dbx and note what
folder contains the other Inbox.dbx. Now use OE's File | Import to import
the messages from that other folder.

Don't store messages in the Inbox. It is the folder most apt to become
corrupt and lose messages. In fact, if they're really important save them
outside OE.
 
Frank Saunders said:
Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store folder will tell you where OE is
currently storing it's data. Make note of that.

Now go to Start | Search | All Files and Folders | More Advanced Options
and set it to Search hidden files and folders. Look for Inbox.dbx and
note what folder contains the other Inbox.dbx. Now use OE's File | Import
to import the messages from that other folder.

Don't store messages in the Inbox. It is the folder most apt to become
corrupt and lose messages. In fact, if they're really important save them
outside OE.
Click to expand...

That's very good information from Frank. He knows what he's talking about.
You will have a problem if you formatted the hard drive and reinstalled
Windows. A format would wipe the hard drive, and all your emails, and other
files and data would be lost.
 
Many thanks for your excellent advice.

Unfortunately, I had reformatted my hard drive before reinstalling Windows,
so it looks like I'll have lost everything.

I had only just moved to Outlook Express and didn't realise that it wasn't
like, for example, Yahoo, where the mail is stored on their server.

Bit of a disaster, but I guess you live and learn by your mistakes.
 
Alison said:
Many thanks for your excellent advice.

Unfortunately, I had reformatted my hard drive before reinstalling
Windows,
so it looks like I'll have lost everything.

I had only just moved to Outlook Express and didn't realise that it wasn't
like, for example, Yahoo, where the mail is stored on their server.

Bit of a disaster, but I guess you live and learn by your mistakes.
Click to expand...

Most mail servers will let you set up your account as an IMAP account, in
which case mail will be stored on the server. However, stay aware of the
limits the server may have on how much you can store.
 
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