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no system restore points after SP3

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by Jak25, 2008/11/12.

  1. 2008/11/12
    Jak25

    Jak25 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Hello. A few days ago I got some great help restoring XP's address bar in the taskbar following my wary install of SP3 addressing-sp3-issues. I'd also discovered I no longer had any restore points save for the new one that marked the install.

    Today, OE decided to just go ahead and delete some 1200 emails on its own, without my telling it to compact messages (another heinous MSoft trick, that compacting actually deletes needed messages rather than just crunching space. Evil. But that's another story.).

    Now, I manually back up the .dbx files every couple of days (I use a Seagate FreeAgent drive which only backs up user-created files, not all essentials, dammit, so I have to copy/paste on my own), so replacing the Inbox isn't that big a deal. But I thought I'd try a system restore to see if I could get them all back that way, just for the helluvit. Well, gee, once again, there are no system restore points, save for today's date! The previous one for SP3's install is gone!

    I wasn't going to uninstall SP3, since I'd not seen any other DIRECT problems, but I wonder...
     
    Jak25,
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  2. 2008/11/12
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Prior to compacting, copies of the files are sent to the recycle bin. High light them and move them back to the original folder. I don't know if it's possible to just "right-click > restore" to get them back in the original folder.

    Now, the extension is *.bak instead of *.dbx but there are a lot of *.dbx files present in the original folder. Change the extension on those from *.dbx to *.xyz (or whatever) and change the extension on the files from the recycle bin from *.bak to *.dbx. This should bring the lost mail back.

    Make certain that Outlook Express is closed while doing this!

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  4. 2008/11/12
    Jak25

    Jak25 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks, Christer. I'vr never known reinstating the files was just that simple. Of course, this is the one time that all the files are present in the recycle bin EXCEPT for the Inbox. Oh well.

    Any thoughts about the system restore? Think it'll continue to be a shifty creature?
     
    Jak25,
    #3
  5. 2008/11/13
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I use Replicator to do backup jobs. One job is the Outlook Express folder. It is tagged to create a subfolder (name = the date) in the backup folder (otherwise the existing files get overwritten). I have several backups and to go back, I run the job on the current contents and copy back the desired "date ". When done, I copy back the most recent backup. I always copy the full contents to make sure that everything mesh with the contents of "Folders.dbx ".

    Strange that Inbox.bak wasn't there ... :confused: ... maybe a corrupted file that couldn't be backed up?

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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