Resolved How does OE store data?

How are Outlook Express 6.00 2800.2000 emails stored on disk? Is it in some kind of database. If so does anyone know the name of it, how to repair it, or if it can be replaced with a new one that’s empty?

 

OE keeps its data, except the address book, in .dbx files...inbox.dbx, outbox.dbx and so forth.

To find out where they are, open OE, go to Tools>Options>Maintenance tab and click the Store Folder button. That will give you the path to the .dbx files.

It keeps addresses in a .wab file.

 

Here’s what it says when I look for the store folder.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{B97AA741-69B1-4EDC-9082-BDDFABA77FA3}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

That’s all well and good, but when I look in the Explorer or do a search, there is no such place, and a search locates nothing with a .dbx extension.

I’m afraid I’m in the dark here.

 

Duhoh!

I never checked to see if hidden files were shown. I always want to see hidden files and extensions, but just this week there’s been some changes on my system to try to eradicate some baddies, and evidently the switches were turned back off.

Now I see all kinds of the things! LOL!

In fact, I found a cleanup log in there that was messing around with outlook, so I don’t doubt that the problem I’m having came from that.

I’d love to get back all the e-mails I’ve saved, but the world won’t end if they go. Now what I need to know is, can I save those things, then replace them with dbx files that haven’t been "tampered" with?

FI, can I take the files from another machine and stick them into mine? And which files would those be?

 

To me it looks like the text of the message is a "memo" field in a VFP database, and the .fpt has been corrupted somehow because I can’t see anything in any of the messages. Everything else is there. The names, subjects and attachments all seem fine, but the messages are gone.

I’ll do it as soon as I’m finished with this and let you know what happens.

Thanx!

 

Well, I saved them all, then deleted them. Wahoo! You’re correct, they regenerated themselves as soon as OE was restarted!

Unfortunately, even after that, when I had my wife send me an e-mail, I still couldn’t see any part of the message body.

Now me, I’m willing to give something else a try. Rather than OE, I’m willing to use Outlook, as long as I can get it to hook up and go like my OE used to do.

Pretty cool, when I started it, there was an e-mail in the inbox from MS, and I could read the message!

Am I wrong, or did I see some kind of option that changed the appearance of the message body, and can that same thing happen in OE?

 

If OE is the problem, with OE closed, go to Start>Run. In the Run box type regsvr32 inetcomm.dll, click OK. You should get a message box telling you it was successful.

See if you can then see the body of the messages.

 

OK, now something has changed! I fired up OE to try something I read in that Google, and lo and behold, the messages were there!

My friend had me run regsvr32 inetcomm.dll, but to be honest, I don’t know why.

Anyhoo, I can read the messages now, but because I removed all the dbx files and let OE rebuild them, I have several that no longer show up. I made folders for them, but I don’t know how to get them from the dbx file back to the proper folder. Any ideas?

 

I tried copying them back, but I suspect there’s a precise sequence to it that I didn’t hit. What happened was a XXXXX(1).dbx was created.

FI, I had a folder called "baseballâ€. Since it was gone after I deleted all the dbx files, I created a new folder called baseball. when I go look in the directory, the old baseball is there, but a new file called "baseball(2).dbx is there, and nothing shows in OE as being there.

 

Don’t ask me why it worked this time, but I was able to import the old messages, and am able to read them as well!

I honestly don’t know why or how, and honestly don’t care. LOL!

Right now I’m very happy to have recovered them and than everyone for their help. I don’t know how to do it, but as far as I’m concerned, this thread is resolved, as is th eone titled Can’t read messages in OE.

Thanx again everyone.