unable to delete messages from Sent Items Folder

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CdLSRN - 20 Jun 2006 01:53 GMT

I received this e-mail from my son. He has 38,000 sent items. Can you help?
"In Outlook Express, is there a way to delete "sent" mail, to your knowledge? Every
time I try, I get a message that reads, "The Message Could Not Be Deleted".
Thank you

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Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, OE/WM - 20 Jun 2006 02:37 GMT

>I received this e-mail from my son. He has 38,000 sent items. Can you help?
> "In Outlook Express, is there a way to delete "sent" mail, to your
> knowledge? Every
> time I try, I get a message that reads, "The Message Could Not Be
> Deleted".
> Thank you

Assuming that he can delete from other folders, Sent Items is probably
corrupt.
Move any messages you want to keep out of Sent Items.
Go to Tools | Options | Maintenance and see where OE is storing its files.
Close OE.
Go there with Windows Explorer and move Sent Items.dbx to an empty Windows
folder. With Win2K and WinXP it will be a hidden file.

You can use One or these tools to extract the messages from the old DBX
file:

DBXtract ($5): http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/
DBXpress: ($25 but worth it)
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

The messages can be dragged from a Windows folder back into an OE folder in
OE's Folder List.

In the future do not use the default folders to store messages. Move them
to user created folders.

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Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, OE/WM
Please reply in newsgroup.

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