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Compacting ,Deleted 3 years of emails

Discussion in 'Internet Explorer & Microsoft Edge' started by JAY R, 2006/12/27.

  1. 2006/12/27
    JAY R

    JAY R Inactive Thread Starter

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    While reading my email in Outlook Express 6 ,a message poped up and asked if I wanted to compact my email, the file was getting too big. I thought that meant compress the files , I clicked yes. After about 10 mins, it was finished. I reopened my email and 3 years of emails were gone from the Inbox and there was nothing in the sent folder. I was stunned. I had lots of valuable information in those emails. I know I should have backed up my email folder long ago, but never got around to it. Does anyone know how, I can retrieve those missing emails.

    THE POP UP SHOULD HAVE ASKED IF I WANTED TO DELETE OLD EMAILS , NOT COMPACT THEM
    Running XP Home Edition , sp2 ,IE6
    :mad:

    Jay R
     
    Last edited: 2006/12/27
    JAY R,
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  2. 2006/12/27
    Whiskeyman Lifetime Subscription

    Whiskeyman Inactive Alumni

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    See if anything in the following thread helps.

    http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=32015

    Storing that many emails in the Inbox folder can be a cause of the problem. I find it best to create subfolders for temporary storage of emails and saving important ones to a folder located elsewhere on my hard drive and to a burned CD. I have also created a gmail account that I forward important emails to for the purpose of backup.
     
    Whiskeyman,
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  4. 2006/12/27
    armestier

    armestier Inactive

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    armestier,
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  5. 2006/12/27
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hello JAY R,

    Check to see how long your ISP stores emails.

    One ISP I know of that stores emails by default even though you remove them from your in-box is Earth Link unless you specifically choose the option to remove them from their server as well.

    Regards - Charles
     
    charlesvar,
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  6. 2006/12/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    JAY R,
    have you checked the storage location for the file sizes? If the sizes are small, something really went wrong and the files have been cleared. That means that DBXtract has nothing to extract.

    Until recently, I have never seen a backup of the files being created when the message folders are compacted. On the most recent occasion, backups were created and when done, they ended up in the Recycle Bin. This change in behaviour cannot have anything to do with me upgrading from IE 6 to IE 7 because OE 6 is still the same (?) but it may be connected with a recent update to OE 6 (Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-076 Cumulative Security Update for Outlook Express). Since that time, my message folders have not been compacted so, I don't know if it was an unexplicable one time occurrence.

    So, do check your Recycle Bin for any *.bak files, *.dbx.bak files or anything like that. I'm sorry, but I remember neither the exact file extension(s) nor the original location to which the files in the Recycle Bin could be restored.

    The tip of the day may be to create backups of the complete Outlook Express folder and Address Book folder to a different location, preferrably a different partition or hard disk. If something like this should happen again, you will only lose the additions since the most recent backup when you copy the backups to the original location.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  7. 2006/12/29
    RexB Lifetime Subscription

    RexB groundskeeper

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    Jay R, if your .dbx files are still around they are stored here:
    -Go to Programs>Windows Explorer>Tools tab>Folder Options>View tab, then click the radio button for "Show hidden files and folders ".

    -Then in Windows Explorer, drill down to
    My Computer>Local Disk (C: or D: whatever)>Documents and Settings>*your user name*>Application Data>Local Settings>Application Data again>Identities>*click on the alphanumeric string there*>Microsoft>Outlook Express.

    Hopefully, the .dbx files are still there. They can be copied, or better yet ex/imported back to Outlook Express, which for whatever reason no longer recognizes them. Good luck, cause I know how important they are and .dbx files are tricky.

    -

    After that Outlook Express Security update KB923694, my OE files compacted and also -for the first time- sent .bak files to the Recycle Bin too. But it left all the files and folders intact in OE6, so no problem.

    knock on wood.

    The Recycle Bin shows their location as
    C:\Documents and Settings\*user name*\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\*{alphanumeric string}*\Microsoft\Outlook Express.
    and they were available to be restored to the OE6 app.

    This new .bak twist after compacting OE folders doesn't give me a warm 'n fuzzy feeling, but so far no harm here.
     
    RexB,
    #6
  8. 2006/12/29
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    RexB,
    thanks for verifying the location of the *.bak files prior to being sent to the Recycle Bin. I suspected that it might be a different folder than the storage location but MS obviously made it the easy way.

    I actually feel good about it. There has been a fair number of threads dealing with lost E-mails due to compacting. This must be regarded as a step forward.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #7
  9. 2006/12/29
    RexB Lifetime Subscription

    RexB groundskeeper

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    [SIZE= "1"]... "There has been a fair number of threads dealing with lost E-mails due to compacting. This must be regarded as a step forward. "...[/SIZE]

    Good point.

    Since I'm easily surprised by 'unadvertised' Windows/IE/OE actions :eek: , i still haven't deleted 58MB of OE .bak from the recycle bin, lol.

    Just thinking about it I made another CD backup.
     
    RexB,
    #8

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