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Windows Forum / Outlook Express / OE 6.x / May 2008Where are Compacted OE Messages stored ???
Where are the Compacted msg's stored? I understand that it's important to say yes to compacting but where do I find the old msg when I need to get to it? I have goggled and googled but can't find an answer. Compacting only removes space taken up by moved or deleted messages. It doesn't move any. Did you lose any messages? Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?: http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact About File Corruption: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx Compacting your folders periodically is a must to keep OE functioning well and at some point, you may lose all your saved messages if you don't. When you delete, or move messages, the space they had used remains until you compact. Never touch anything until the compacting is finished. See: www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 With SP2, automatic background compacting was removed due to problems it caused. Now you will get a prompt to compact after 100 OE closings, which you should do, and don't touch anything until it has finished. If you compact manually, at your convenience, this will also set the counter back to zero. See this for more information: http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact If you are fully patched, you will also now see a copy of your dbx files being copied to the Recycle Bin as BAK files. Should something go awry when compacting, the messages can easily be restored from this backup. A manual compact will also reset the counter in the registry back to zero now. For more info, see the information outlined in red here: www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 To keep things running smooth, and for faster compacting: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt and you may lose mail. 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. And backup often. Backup and Restore: http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/ http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx  SignatureBruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA > Where are the Compacted msg's stored? I understand > that it's important to say yes to compacting but where > do I find the old msg when I need to get to it? > I have goggled and googled but can't find an answer. Thanks for the reply and links......No, OE just keep asking me I did once and lost msg from view in OE. Finally found them, can't remember where now. Just don't want to loose them again or if stored somewhere on my hard drive I just wanted to know where and if I can change the name. I've been having problems with OE (this may be why) from another post, where I lost my original address book. Solved that problem but didn't want to create another one with the compacting. Side question: I have seen remarks that elude to MS not doing any more programming for OE since they want people to switch to Windows Mail. True or False? My hubby has Vista/Windows Mail and I don't like it. I like the flexibility of OE over Outlook, but I miss having the Calendar and being able to have the best of both worlds......................Bubey Compacting only removes space taken up by moved or deleted messages. It doesn't move any. Did you lose any messages? Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?: http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact About File Corruption: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx Compacting your folders periodically is a must to keep OE functioning well and at some point, you may lose all your saved messages if you don't. When you delete, or move messages, the space they had used remains until you compact. Never touch anything until the compacting is finished. See: www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 With SP2, automatic background compacting was removed due to problems it caused. Now you will get a prompt to compact after 100 OE closings, which you should do, and don't touch anything until it has finished. If you compact manually, at your convenience, this will also set the counter back to zero. See this for more information: http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact If you are fully patched, you will also now see a copy of your dbx files being copied to the Recycle Bin as BAK files. Should something go awry when compacting, the messages can easily be restored from this backup. A manual compact will also reset the counter in the registry back to zero now. For more info, see the information outlined in red here: www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 To keep things running smooth, and for faster compacting: Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become corrupt and you may lose mail. 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. And backup often. Backup and Restore: http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/ http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx SignatureBruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA > Where are the Compacted msg's stored? I understand > that it's important to say yes to compacting but where > do I find the old msg when I need to get to it? > I have goggled and googled but can't find an answer. Second question answer. The OE development team was disbanded in 2006 since this is the last version of OE that will be produced, but not to get people to switch to Windows Mail which you can only have in Vista. There are more problems in WinMail than they fixed and that e-mail program is being all but abandoned. If you read through the Windows Vista Mail newsgroup, you will see many suggestions for people to switch to Windows Live Mail which you can use with Vista and XP. Windows Live Mail (Overview & Features): http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview ~~~~~~~~ As far as losing messages when compacting, this is my standard *canned* reply. Note the do's and don'ts and even with the automatic backup, a program like OEQB, (mentioned near the end), is a good idea. 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, 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. Backup and Restore: http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/ And this good one click backup program. Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB): http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx SignatureBruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA > Thanks for the reply and links......No, OE just keep asking me > I did once and lost msg from view in OE. Finally found them, [quoted text clipped - 67 lines] >> do I find the old msg when I need to get to it? >> I have goggled and googled but can't find an answer. Thanks for all the suggestions and links ! Since OE is no longer going to be enhanced and it will probably happen down the line with Windows Mail since it's also MS, whose mail program could you recommend, similar to Outlook Express, that will keep being enhanced by the company who developed it. Thanks ! Bubey Second question answer. The OE development team was disbanded in 2006 since this is the last version of OE that will be produced, but not to get people to switch to Windows Mail which you can only have in Vista. There are more problems in WinMail than they fixed and that e-mail program is being all but abandoned. If you read through the Windows Vista Mail newsgroup, you will see many suggestions for people to switch to Windows Live Mail which you can use with Vista and XP. Windows Live Mail (Overview & Features): http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview ~~~~~~~~ As far as losing messages when compacting, this is my standard *canned* reply. Note the do's and don'ts and even with the automatic backup, a program like OEQB, (mentioned near the end), is a good idea. 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, 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. Backup and Restore: http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/ And this good one click backup program. Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB): http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx SignatureBruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA > Thanks for the reply and links......No, OE just keep asking me > I did once and lost msg from view in OE. Finally found them, [quoted text clipped - 67 lines] >> do I find the old msg when I need to get to it? >> I have goggled and googled but can't find an answer. I can't make any *hands-on* recommendations, but: Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, Eudora, Pegasus, Opera. SignatureBruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA > Thanks for all the suggestions and links ! > Since OE is no longer going to be enhanced and it will probably [quoted text clipped - 193 lines] >>> do I find the old msg when I need to get to it? >>> I have goggled and googled but can't find an answer. Sorry to bother you again, but I just did the compacting. I found all my OE mgs/folders in the Recycle Bin with .bak extension. If I emply the Recycle will I loose my stuff? I can't make any *hands-on* recommendations, but: Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, Eudora, Pegasus, Opera. SignatureBruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA > Thanks for all the suggestions and links ! > Since OE is no longer going to be enhanced and it will probably [quoted text clipped - 195 lines] >>> do I find the old msg when I need to get to it? >>> I have goggled and googled but can't find an answer. No bother. That's why we're here. No, you won't lose your messages if you empty the Recycle Bin. As I explained, a backup is made there when you compact. <Canned> This is due to the OE update, (KB923694). Now when you compact, a copy of your dbx files are sent to the Recycle Bin in the event that something should go wrong and messages, or entire folders, are lost when you are compacting. Many people do not back up Outlook Express on a regular basis. This new mandatory backup is something people have been asking for quite awhile as we spend a lot of time helping people getting their messages back, and they have to purchase a tool to recover messages. You can empty the Recycle Bin any time you want and the bak files will go away until you compact again. For more info, see the information outlined in red here: www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2 If you don't currently back up OE regularly, I would suggest you get this, or a similar tool, (freeware): This freeware tool backs up everything in OE in seconds. Disregard what is written in red. That is referring to a different program. Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB): http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx SignatureBruce Hagen MS-MVP Outlook Express Imperial Beach, CA > Sorry to bother you again, but I just did the compacting. I found all my > OE [quoted text clipped - 209 lines] >>>> do I find the old msg when I need to get to it? >>>> I have goggled and googled but can't find an answer. Compact all OE folders manually and frequently and Automatic Compacting should never rear its ugly head. > Thanks for the reply and links......No, OE just keep asking me > I did once and lost msg from view in OE. Finally found them, [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > that problem but didn't want to create another one with the > compacting. <snip> |
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