lost my inbox messages in Outlook Express

I am running windows xp and Outlook Express 6, and McAfee anti virus
my computer crashed as I was DL something and receving mail at the same time.
Now my inbox is empty. I had at least 50 emails there and they are gone.
the other folders are still there and I can download new emails into an inbox but what was there before in the inbox is gone.
I thought maybe there was a virus and McAfee might have quarantined it, but when I checked the quarantine files nothing was there.
If I do a search I do find a file called Inbox.dbx but I don't know what to do next. I guess that file is just the current inbox which is empty.

Is there any way I can retreive the emails that were in my inbox?
any help is appreciated.
thank you
Barbara

 

barcann--Have you rebooted since all this happened? If not do so.
Then click OE Tools|Options|Maintenance tab|Store Folder. Make a note of the address of the store folder. Run another search on Inbox.dbx.
How many do you find? If only one, is it in the Store Folder?
Or do you have two inbox.dbx files in two locations, one being the Store Folder?
If the former, the inbox.dbx file is the new one, and your old messages may indeed be gone. (Check it just to be sure.)
If the latter, then change the name of the old inbox.dbx (the one not in the Store Folder) to something like inbox2.dbx and move it into the Store Folder. You now should see both Inbox (new messages) and Inbox2 (old messages) in the dropdown list when you click on the Inbox box just below Create Mail. The messages are separated into two inboxes. However, if you want (not really necessary), you can put them all together by holding down the Control key, clicking on the individual messages in inbox2 until all are highlighted, right click somewhere in the middle of the bunch, click "Move to folder ", and chose "Inbox ". The old messages should now be all in Inbox and hopefully viewable from Inbox. You really have no more need for Inbox2.dbx which should be empty and so can move it out of the Store Folder.
P.S.

I was curious about that comment. You have no new email in your Inbox? Is your OE functioning correctly? Has no one sent you an email since the problems started? Post back if you are not receiving new emails when you should.
The above suggestion for the situation where you found two inbox.dbx files, assumed that your new inbox had some new mail in it that you would want to keep. But if you really have no mail in the new inbox then you do not have torename the inbox.dbx that is not in the Store Folder, but can just move it into the Store Folder. When you are asked if you want to replace the exisiting inbox.dbx, click Yes.

 

hi
thanks for your reply
I have rebooted
I did what you said
there is one Inbox.dbx file and it is in the same location as the store folder.
What I meant when I said my inbox was empty that the old messages were gone.
I am receiving new messages with no problem.
So I can assume then that my old inbox messages are permanently gone since there is only one inbox.dbx file and it is in the proper location?

I found an old post here which talked about the anti virus program quarantining an inbox folder because of a virus. It suggested changing the inbox.dbx to inbox.dat and then going to quarantine and restoring it.
I was afraid to do that and I do not see anything in my quarantine anyway. this post was referering to Norton and not McAfee which is what I am using.
Barbara

 

One of these probably will find and recover them.

I think I recommended http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx (formerly free dbxtract, now $5 ) to someone a few days ago who had a similar problem and it recovered their files.

Older version may still be available for free


http://www.oehelp.com/
Has a lot of good info.

 

hi oshwyn5
I was able to DL the DBXtract from the pcworld web site. It extracted the new emails I have currently in my inbox.
all the old emails are lost I guess

 

I have a similar problem with my wife's Inbox. Her Inbox disappeared and was replaced with an empty Inbox. When I navigate to the location of her inbox, C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\her identity number\Microsoft\Outlook Express, I find both Inboxes. The old one is still called Inbox and still has data in it. Her new one is called Inbox(1). However, when in the actual Outlook Express program, her inbox is still called Inbox, without the (1), but it contains her newer messages that she has received since this occurred. Since her old one appears to still have messages in it, is there a way to get those messages into her new inbox?

 

With OE closed, go locate Inbox(1).dbx and rename it to Saved.dbx (Presuming you do not have a saved folder)
(Right click on it and choose rename. Do not forget the .dbx extension on name)
Close and restart computer and launch OE and you should now have a new folder saved with all the old messages in it.

 

Bucksone--When your wife clicks on the Inbox link right under the word Create Mail in OE, does she see both Inbox and Inbox(1)? Clicking on either of those should allow your wife to see the messages in that particular Inbox. If she wants to put all the messages together in one Inbox, read my first reply to barcann.

 

barcann--You could try to recover the old inbox.dbx using this program
http://www.webattack.com/get/restoration.html
I suggest you download to a floppy and run from there, if you can, for the reasons given in the first few posts here.
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=47850&highlight=Restoration

 

Well, things have gone from bad to worse. I followed oshwyn5's directions and renamed Inbox (1), and it has gone away too. My wife now has a new, empty inbox.
To answer Welshjim's question, when in Outlook Express, the only Inbox available is the newest (now empty because it's brand new) one. When I navigate through Windows Explorer following the path I included in my original post, I now have Inbox (the oldest), Inbox (2) (the one that replaced her first Inbox), and Inbox (1) (the empty one the computer just created.) Inbox (2) is the one I was told to rename to Saved. When I saw what happened, I tried to rename it back to Inbox (1) in hopes that it would at least be restored to being the current inbox, but the computer wouldn't let be name it that because it was already using the name Inbox (1) for the inbox it just created. So I renamed it Inbox (2).
Also, when in the Outlook Express program the inbox is always titled Inbox, even though it is using the inbox file, Inbox (1).
Please help. My wife needs those emails for some ongoing projects, and isn't going to be pleased to find out I have made them disappear!

 

The reason you ended up with a new inbox when you renamed inbox (1).dbx to saved is because that's the one it was using for the inbox and once that is gone, OE will create a new inbox the next time you open it. Of course, it'll be empty as it's newly created and never been used. You should have renamed the inbox(1).dbx and then renamed the old inbox.dbx to inbox(1).dbx. If you had done this, OE would have used the old one and you may have got all the old messages back. I say may have because it's possible the old inbox was corrupted after the crash and that could be the reason OE created the new one.

Here's what I would try but there's no guarantees here. First, make sure OE is closed. Then, rename inbox (1).dbx to inboxold.dbx. Then rename inbox (2).dbx to inbox (1).dbx. Once you've done this, open OE and see if the messages that are supposed to be there are there. If so, move them to another folder in OE. Once you've done this, close OE and then in windows explorer, rename inbox (1).dbx to something that isn't yet being used. Maybe inbox (1).old. Then rename the original inbox.dbx to inbox (1).dbx. After doing this, once again open OE and, unless the original inbox is corrupted, you should be able to get at the messages in it. From here you can either move them to a different folder in OE or leave them there and use that inbox from now on (assuming it's not corrupted). If it is corrupted, chances are OE will create a new inbox again and when you open the program the inbox will be empty. If this is the case you can leave it as is or go back and rename the appropriate files if you wish.

A question I have is what makes OE look for inbox (1).dbx instead of inbox.dbx. Chances are it's something in the registry but I wouldn't know right off hand where it is. You may want to straighten that out or you can just leave it as is as long as no harm is done. Up to you. If you want it back the way it was originally, ask and maybe I or somebody else can come up with something.

 

I seem to have resolved the problem, thanks once again to the resources of this forum. I downloaded a program from a link in one of the posts in this thread (I forget which link) called OE View. Using that, I was able to view a list of the messages in each of the renegade inboxes. I then copied them into a folder I created on my desktop. Next, I had to open each message. They opened using Outlook Express. I then clicked File>Move to Folder, selected Inbox and clicked OK. This did the trick! It was a bit time consuming, but worth it, as it worked.
Thanks for all of the assistance, especially since this wasn't my thread to begin with.