Inbox doesn't show emails

I've been helping a friend with her computer. She has Windows 98SE and Outlook Express 6. She has over 600MB of data saved in her inbox, yet nothing appears when we attempt to open the inbox. All other OE folders open and show mail. I've backed up the inbox data on a CD, but haven't found a way to open the files. She says that on a rare occasion she is able to see her messages. What suggestions might you have to address this problem?

 

I have had exactly this problem, and it's usually a corrupted file. There is an excellent recovery program called DBXtract which enables emails to be recovered froma corrupted file - it works like a charm! It is available for a miniscule sum via Steve Cochran's OEHelp website. There is also a full discussion of OE problems at www.microsft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx. Good luck.

 

I'll try DBXtract and see if we can recover those messages. Looking at his website, I'm not quite sure how to operate the program. I believe that I would Save messages under folder name in Action; click location and Inbox in Input; and create a new folder in Output. Is there a preferred location or folder name to put the copied dbx files? If I haven't explained this accurately, please let me know the steps you recommend. Thanks

 

Hi Barry -
I assume you haven't yet acquired DBXtract, because if you had you would find that it comes with a comprehensive HELP file that describes fully how to use the program. Steve Cochran's website doesn't go into any detail because the HELP file says it all.
Again, good luck.

 

E-mail

Can't you reset E-mail by--ctrl-shift--F-9 then wait 10 min for them to reset?
Forgot to say sign out of msn-= sign to msn- don't enter password ctrl--shift--F-9 now--yes--yes. then wait 10 min.

 

Dytrog, I'm not sure that I understand your directions. I did the F-9 as you said, both with OE open and closed, but nothing happened. I'm not sure what you meant by your last sentence.
I'm not sure that DBXtract is what I want either. I am looking for a way to add a new folder and then import all the files from the old inbox into it. Any suggestions to do that?

 

I'm sorry I gave wrong advice i didn't get to try it first. i gave my sister my last 98 se 2 months ago. i will have to get it back and give her one of my xp's. hard to advise with out it. the best i could find was on internet explorer.
Microsoft Outlook Express 6.0 latest news. oit had some that may help. could you move your saved mail to hotmail delete OE reinstall OE and import them back? i think you have to have equal acct's and maybe folders on hotmail and OE? I Will get my se back i have 3 xp's and 1 mac.

 

I've relabeled the inbox and then copied it to her external hard drive. I'll attempt to transfer it to her other computer on Wednesday. Hopefully that will work. I'm still confused, though, as to the reason that the inbox won't show up on her Win98SE computer, since everything else does, along with any new mail in the inbox.

 

www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329570/en-us

 

I ran out of time and didn't get all this done yet, but I plan to import all OE files from the external hard drive to her other computer. Once there, I plan to move that Inboxa into multiple folders. Maybe, then, I can put them on a CD and import them back to the original computer. There will be some extra steps in between, as her old Win98SE computer has a burner but isn't compatible with her external hard drive, and her other computer can accept the external hard drive but has no burner. Her 3rd computer is Win95 and only accepts floppies. It is a challenge working on this system, but we are seeing progress, especially in backing everything up. Her new HP laptop will arrive in 2 weeks, and we want to be able to put everything on that.
I also plan on trying Dytrog's suggestion: "To backup and restore a single OE5 or 6 mail folder, save the appropriate dbx file. To restore, create a new folder in OE5 or 6 (call it archiv1, for example) and access it once. Then close OE and find archiv1.dbx and delete it. Make a copy of the folder you want to restore and rename it to archiv1.dbx. Then copy that file into the directory where the previous file was deleted. Open OE and the messages you wanted to restore will be accessible via opening that archiv1 folder. "

 

Hi Barry -
You are making life very difficult for yourself. If the inbox shows nothing when you open it there is no way you can recover the emails using any of the XP facilities. If you copy the file somewhere else you will be copying a corrupted file and still not be able to read it. DBXtract is designed for exactly this purpose and does exactly what you are trying to do - in using it you will create a new file and extract the emails from the corrupted file into the new file, which is precisely what you say you want to do. Dytrog's suggestion only works on a file which is readable - your inbox isn't.

 

I tried DBXtract, but the version I have (v4.50) has no instructions. In playing around with it, it appears able to open files, as long as I know the subject or the prefix. Since I don't know what is in that file, I left the subject unknown, so it opened some emails that had no subject listed. I don't want to open the emails one at a time. I want to recover the entire file. If you feel that DBXtract can help me to do this, please explain the procedure. The program seems simple enough. I just can't figure it out.

 

Hi Barry -
You have an earlier version of DBXtract - mine is version 5; maybe your version didn't come with a Help file. However, if you email me at (deleted) I will email you a copy of the Help file I have. It's quite straightforward but I don't want to type it all out in this reply!