Where did my files go?

sent mail.dbx

[eljefe3]

I have been experiencing some glitches lately where the computer has frozen. Upon starting up the box I got an error message that corresponded to the path where the sent mail.dbx is located. This had all my outgoing mail for the last 3 years. Now when I go to that folder and click on properties, it shows I have 154 mb there ( which would be all the sent messages). However, when I view the sent messages from Outlook Express, only the last 6 messages are listed.

Anyone know where I might find the last 3 years of messages? I have already performed a system rollback to two weeks prior and nothing positive has been found from doing this.

[Mardi_Gras]

Is your inbox showing all e-mails, or just the past few days? Could it be that your message store folder got switched?

<<added: You probably know this, but Tools>Options>Maintenance>Store Folder will show the location of the message store OE is using.>>

[lazerzubb]

Yes see if there is a 1 or something like it added to the file, i've had this, i had to make sure the files is not compressed and all that ****, when you should import them, be sure to have them as write, read access.

[Mardi_Gras]

You might also try doing a search for *.dbx to see if any duplicate files show up (although if you have different identities in OE that could create an additional copy).

I think under XP .dbx files may be hidden by default...

[HarryM]

Sometimes when Outlook Express closes incorrectly, it can create a new dbx file. I haven't seen it happen on Sent Messages but it used to happen frequently to me on my Inbox. The cause was eventually tracked down to Norton AV, but it also used to happen with McAfee.

To recover, find the file where your emails are stored.

Look for 'Sent Messages.dbx". There should be just one of these.

If there is a "Sent Messages(1).dbx" then this is the old database file.

There are extraction tools you can use which you can download from the web. Unfortunately after extraction the emails stay in text format.

[eljefe3]

I have just looked for the files again and when finding all the .dbx files in C:\documents & setting\blah\blah\blah\microsoft\outlook express I see 154 mb of files when clicking on the properties tab of sent items.dbx. However when I select OE to open the folder, nothing shows. I have the option of archive, read only or hidden and neither of these seems to show me the files. Incidentally there are no other dbx files that have a 1 in front so I know this is where all the sent messages are, I just can't seem to get them. Of course this happens when I need to access these messages for the first time that were sent 1 year ago.

[Mardi_Gras]

Are all of your older inbox files missing as well? Or do those go back to where they should?

[HarryM]

If memory serves me right, the dbx should contain messages and an index. Deleting a message only deletes it from the index, and makes it inaccessible. But it is still there until you compact the dbx.

If it is your index only that has changed, then the messages should still be there.

I have used a tool that I downloaded from the web which could extract emails from dbx's. Unfortunately it seems to have disappeared from my system during a rebuild, and I have forgotten the name. But there are probably several such tools out there.

As a long term measure I would suggest taking a backup copy of the complete E-mail file on a regular basis to prevent a similar thing happening again.

[eljefe3]

All files are still where they belong except the sent items. I probably have 60 different folders and everything is where it should be except for the sent items. I have changed the program to open the .dbx file to wordpad and that works fine on the smaller folders, but not on the 150+mb of sent items. When I change the program to open .dbx from notepad to OE, the files are not there. Guess I'll go utility surfing.

[Mardi_Gras]

Since all else has failed, you may want to try DBXtract [oehelp.com]. Caveat - I have not used it myself, but it looks like it should do what you need.

[eljefe3]

Thanks DG. I tried that utility as well as a couple of others and it looks like I've got some bad sectors/files in there, so I'm SOL on the sent items. Hopefully I can piece together most of the stuff by looking at the laptop correspondence.