[Spud]

Outlook express has compacted all my folders and messages with out
permission. All the settings for compacting are turned off in
Tools>options>maintenance.

Any ideas ?

[Jim Pickering]

Operating system in use? Version of Outlook Express installed as shown in
Help/About screen? Without that it's just guessing.

In the meantime, review the info in this article:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.


"Spud" <Spud@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0B86E524-AF53-4790-B06B-61CC03CEE784@microsoft.com...
> Outlook express has compacted all my folders and messages with out
> permission. All the settings for compacting are turned off in
> Tools>options>maintenance.
>
> Any ideas ?

[Steve Cochran]

See here and point 4 for various recovery techniques:
www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx

If you have any dbt files, immediately move them to another directory, as OE
may wipe them out and they have the messages in them. You can rename the
dbt file to dbx and use the method in the last paragraph on this page to
recovery the messages without having to use a 3rd party program:
www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx


steve

"Spud" <Spud@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0B86E524-AF53-4790-B06B-61CC03CEE784@microsoft.com...
> Outlook express has compacted all my folders and messages with out
> permission. All the settings for compacting are turned off in
> Tools>options>maintenance.
>
> Any ideas ?

[spud]

Win Home Xp with SP2, OE6, this has occured on 2 other occasions.

"Jim Pickering" wrote:

> Operating system in use? Version of Outlook Express installed as shown in
> Help/About screen? Without that it's just guessing.
>
> In the meantime, review the info in this article:
> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx
> --
> Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
> https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
> Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
> Thanks.
>
>
> "Spud" <Spud@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:0B86E524-AF53-4790-B06B-61CC03CEE784@microsoft.com...
> > Outlook express has compacted all my folders and messages with out
> > permission. All the settings for compacting are turned off in
> > Tools>options>maintenance.
> >
> > Any ideas ?
>
>

[Jim Pickering]

That leads to the question, are you doing something that is interfering with
the compacting operation, such as shutting down windows or pulling the plug,
or using Task Manager to kill msimn.exe (Outlook Express)? If so, any of
those actions are the cause of your lost messages rather than the compacting
itself.

In the meantime, see if the info at this link helps recover them:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone

Also, do a File Search for any files ending with the extension of DBT or DBX
and if found, copy them immediately to a new folder and get back to us. In
XP, the DBX and possbily the DBT files as well, are marked as hidden by the
operating sytem, so you will have to amend the search to include searching
for hidden files.
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express



"spud" <spud@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:54D748EF-2822-444F-87D1-585DA5C6E782@microsoft.com...
> Win Home Xp with SP2, OE6, this has occured on 2 other occasions.
>
> "Jim Pickering" wrote:
>
>> Operating system in use? Version of Outlook Express installed as shown
>> in
>> Help/About screen? Without that it's just guessing.
>>
>> In the meantime, review the info in this article:
>> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx
>> --
>> Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
>> https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
>> Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
>> Thanks.
>>
>>
>> "Spud" <Spud@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:0B86E524-AF53-4790-B06B-61CC03CEE784@microsoft.com...
>> > Outlook express has compacted all my folders and messages with out
>> > permission. All the settings for compacting are turned off in
>> > Tools>options>maintenance.
>> >
>> > Any ideas ?
>>
>>

[Steve Cochran]

See www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#6

Given the state of the message store stability, you need to do that
frequently.

steve

"spud" <spud@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:54D748EF-2822-444F-87D1-585DA5C6E782@microsoft.com...
> Win Home Xp with SP2, OE6, this has occured on 2 other occasions.
>
> "Jim Pickering" wrote:
>
>> Operating system in use? Version of Outlook Express installed as shown
>> in
>> Help/About screen? Without that it's just guessing.
>>
>> In the meantime, review the info in this article:
>> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx
>> --
>> Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
>> https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
>> Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
>> Thanks.
>>
>>
>> "Spud" <Spud@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:0B86E524-AF53-4790-B06B-61CC03CEE784@microsoft.com...
>> > Outlook express has compacted all my folders and messages with out
>> > permission. All the settings for compacting are turned off in
>> > Tools>options>maintenance.
>> >
>> > Any ideas ?
>>
>>