emails & folders lost

ginnyP · 2008/05/23

all emails and folders in internet explorer lost when compressed. How do I recover them?

PeteC · 2008/05/23

ginnyP - Welcome to the Board

The later versions of Outlook Express make a backup of the email files in the Recycle Bin - Inbox.bak, Outbox.bak, ..... during the compression process.

Do you have these?

If so follow the rather long and laborious procedure outlined below ....

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first close OE and
locate the Message Store in Windows Explorer.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise, write
the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

In Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the missing, or empty, folder
and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted later once you have
successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact* same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

Open the Recycle bin and right click on the bak file for the folder in
question and click Restore. Open the Message Store back up and change the
file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close the Message Store and open OE. The
messages should now be back in the folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.
Click to expand...

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emails & folders lost

ginnyP Inactive Thread Starter

PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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emails & folders lost

ginnyP Inactive Thread Starter

PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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