'lost' emails

[Bushy]

Dear all,
For the last year or two i have been moving all my hotmail messages straight
across fromt eh hotmail inbox folder to the outlook express inbox folder.
Later i got a G-mail account, and that doesn't get its own inbox like
hotmail does, so i wanted my earlier emails in a folder labelled archive. I
tried moving them to a newly created folder, aptly named, 'archive'. that
way they would be there if i ever wanted something from them. problems began
when i ran out of room on my C drive, and it couldn;t complete the copy.
i've got my emails back to april this year, but anything previous had been
moved to the new archive folder. now, my archive folder doesn't load at all
(even since i cleaned out my C-drive), it just displays "no messages". the
catch is that the file

C:\Documents and Settings\David\Local Settings\Application
Data\Identities\{CCAAAA7C-AC1C-49B7-8ADE-17B630A93AFF}\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\archive.dbx

is still showing 1.99 Gb as the size.

the question is, what has happened? are my emails still locked up in this
archive.dbx file? can i get them out?

please help
Bushy

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE]

Post by Bushy
Dear all,
For the last year or two i have been moving all my hotmail messages
straight across fromt eh hotmail inbox folder to the outlook express
inbox folder. Later i got a G-mail account, and that doesn't get its
own inbox like hotmail does, so i wanted my earlier emails in a
folder labelled archive. I tried moving them to a newly created
folder, aptly named, 'archive'. that way they would be there if i
ever wanted something from them. problems began when i ran out of
room on my C drive, and it couldn;t complete the copy. i've got my
emails back to april this year, but anything previous had been moved
to the new archive folder. now, my archive folder doesn't load at all
(even since i cleaned out my C-drive), it just displays "no
messages". the catch is that the file
C:\Documents and Settings\David\Local Settings\Application
Data\Identities\{CCAAAA7C-AC1C-49B7-8ADE-17B630A93AFF}\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\archive.dbx
is still showing 1.99 Gb as the size.
the question is, what has happened? are my emails still locked up in
this archive.dbx file? can i get them out?
please help
Bushy

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder
Write it down.
If you are using Win2K or WinXP or higher make sure Windows Explorer is set
to show Hidden Files and Folders and go to OE's message store. Is there an
Archive folder? Is it Archive.dbx or Archive.dbt?

If there is no Archive folder you're going to need DBXpress: ($25)
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx if you have Win2K or WinXP or
higher. Run it in disk mode to recover lost messages from the hard drive.

[Bushy]

Post by Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE

Post by Bushy
Dear all,
For the last year or two i have been moving all my hotmail messages
straight across fromt eh hotmail inbox folder to the outlook express
inbox folder. Later i got a G-mail account, and that doesn't get its
own inbox like hotmail does, so i wanted my earlier emails in a
folder labelled archive. I tried moving them to a newly created
folder, aptly named, 'archive'. that way they would be there if i
ever wanted something from them. problems began when i ran out of
room on my C drive, and it couldn;t complete the copy. i've got my
emails back to april this year, but anything previous had been moved
to the new archive folder. now, my archive folder doesn't load at all
(even since i cleaned out my C-drive), it just displays "no
messages". the catch is that the file
C:\Documents and Settings\David\Local Settings\Application
Data\Identities\{CCAAAA7C-AC1C-49B7-8ADE-17B630A93AFF}\Microsoft\Outlook
Express\archive.dbx
is still showing 1.99 Gb as the size.
the question is, what has happened? are my emails still locked up in
this archive.dbx file? can i get them out?
please help
Bushy

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder
Write it down.
If you are using Win2K or WinXP or higher make sure Windows Explorer is
set to show Hidden Files and Folders and go to OE's message store. Is
there an Archive folder? Is it Archive.dbx or Archive.dbt?
If there is no Archive folder you're going to need DBXpress: ($25)
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx if you have Win2K or WinXP or
higher. Run it in disk mode to recover lost messages from the hard drive.
--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

I have the file archive.dbx, and it shows as being 1.99Gb, as i mentioned in
my original post. On your suggestion i looked at DBXpress but couldn't see
the sense in paying US$25 for a once off recovery, not to mention that there
is no way of testing the software will even work before i pay.

As a result i went searching for freeware, demo and shareware applications
that complete the same function. Mail Navigator, scanDBX and abcdbx were the
three i cam across, all offering limtied fuctionality under demo system.
None of these three applications could open my archive.dbx file. Mail
Navigator claimed it had run out of memory, scandbx and abcdbx wouldn't open
a seperate *.dbx file without a license and a fourth program i found claimed
that the archive had no messages in it.

could the actual archive.dbx file be corrupted in some way? is it unusual
for a dbx file to be this large, and this is why it won't load? i'm starting
to wonder if i should just cut my losses and accept that email before april
this year is gone.

thanks for any further suggestions.
Bushy

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE]

Post by Bushy
I have the file archive.dbx, and it shows as being 1.99Gb, as i
mentioned in my original post. On your suggestion i looked at
DBXpress but couldn't see the sense in paying US$25 for a once off
recovery, not to mention that there is no way of testing the software
will even work before i pay.
As a result i went searching for freeware, demo and shareware
applications that complete the same function. Mail Navigator, scanDBX
and abcdbx were the three i cam across, all offering limtied
fuctionality under demo system. None of these three applications
could open my archive.dbx file. Mail Navigator claimed it had run out
of memory, scandbx and abcdbx wouldn't open a seperate *.dbx file
without a license and a fourth program i found claimed that the
archive had no messages in it.
could the actual archive.dbx file be corrupted in some way? is it
unusual for a dbx file to be this large, and this is why it won't
load? i'm starting to wonder if i should just cut my losses and
accept that email before april this year is gone.
thanks for any further suggestions.
Bushy

At 1.99 GB the file is too large for OE to handle. Sorry I missed that in
your post. I don't know any way but DBXpress or DBXtract ($5) to extract
the messages. It is going to take days and it's best to leave the computer
alone while it works. DBXtract will take quite a bit longer and may look
like it isn't doing anything.

[Bushy]

Post by Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE

Post by Bushy
I have the file archive.dbx, and it shows as being 1.99Gb, as i
mentioned in my original post. On your suggestion i looked at
DBXpress but couldn't see the sense in paying US$25 for a once off
recovery, not to mention that there is no way of testing the software
will even work before i pay.
As a result i went searching for freeware, demo and shareware
applications that complete the same function. Mail Navigator, scanDBX
and abcdbx were the three i cam across, all offering limtied
fuctionality under demo system. None of these three applications
could open my archive.dbx file. Mail Navigator claimed it had run out
of memory, scandbx and abcdbx wouldn't open a seperate *.dbx file
without a license and a fourth program i found claimed that the
archive had no messages in it.
could the actual archive.dbx file be corrupted in some way? is it
unusual for a dbx file to be this large, and this is why it won't
load? i'm starting to wonder if i should just cut my losses and
accept that email before april this year is gone.
thanks for any further suggestions.
Bushy

At 1.99 GB the file is too large for OE to handle. Sorry I missed that in
your post. I don't know any way but DBXpress or DBXtract ($5) to extract
the messages. It is going to take days and it's best to leave the
computer alone while it works. DBXtract will take quite a bit longer and
may look like it isn't doing anything.
--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

Thanks for the help. i managed to get my hands on a copy of DBxtract, and
left it running while i was at work today. it seems to have saved nearly all
of them, although it does appear that some of them have been divided into
many smaller emails. all in all DBXtract reported over 5000 messages
recovered, and perhaps most frustratig of all is that the folder containing
the emails is only 1.57Gb, and the DBX archive was 1.99.

Anywho, thanks for the help

Bushy