Lost files from store location.
Changed the store location as per proper method. Noted that upon indicating the new folder where I wanted stored and then hitting OK, it came back with: Your changes will not take effect until you close OE and then re-open. All folders except those that normally come with OE disappeared. However, in Explorer, they were shown listed in the location I had prescribed. I went back and forth on this many times trying to get my folders to reappear with no success but always, the folders showed up in Explorer. However, one time this afternoon, I tried again and this time I received a different message when I closed the location where I wanted the folders and clicked on okay. Thinking this might have been the reason why my folders never appeared each time when I had clicked NO, this time I clicked YES. Folders still did not appear, and with great alarm, I found they had disappeared also from Explorer. Did a search and they did not come up anywhere. Looked in “Deleted Items” in OE – nothing. Looked in Recycle Bin – nothing. Where did they go? How do I get them and my messages back? If I did a system restore, could I recover everything?1 person needs an answerI do too
July 7th, 2010 2:53am

A system restore will do nothing. I assume you never back up your messages?How do I move my store folderhttp://www.insideoe.com/faqs/how.htm#movestoreHow to restore individual dbx fileshttp://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#imp1 Enable Hidden Files and FoldersIn WinXP, Win2K & Win2K3, the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by default marked as hidden. To view these files in Windows Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options Icon | View, or in Windows Explorer | Tools | Folder Options | View.Now do a search for *.dbxIf you find the missing dbx files, get them back in OE as per the instructions above to restore individual dbx files.Bruce Hagen ~ MS-MVP [Mail]
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July 7th, 2010 3:08am

Hi Mr. Indy,System Restore does not affect Emails, at all. So the answer is no.Which version of XP are you talking about?TuneUp Utilities 2010 has the ability to recover accidently deleted files. Do not defragment the Hard Drive, else you won't be able to recover the files.http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/ 30-day Free Trial.If you dual-boot, you might be able to recover the files using the other operating system's copy of the installed TuneUp Utilities 2010, because those files are on a different partition.Do you use Acronis True Image Home to image your partitions and recover from disasters like this? thecreator
July 7th, 2010 3:15am

Unfortunately the files got wiped and I think the only thing that will rescue the messages is my DBXpress program (www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/) which has an extract from disk feature that will bypass the file system and scan the drive directly for messages and it will recover what is still on the drive and not in the files. Next time and daily, make a backup of your important messages, if you value them. steve "Mr. Indy" wrote in message news:537e7409-3c98-4638-98ae-aed81307af89...Changed the store location as per proper method. Noted that upon indicating the new folder where I wanted stored and then hitting OK, it came back with: Your changes will not take effect until you close OE and then re-open. All folders except those that normally come with OE disappeared. However, in Explorer, they were shown listed in the location I had prescribed. I went back and forth on this many times trying to get my folders to reappear with no success but always, the folders showed up in Explorer. However, one time this afternoon, I tried again and this time I received a different message when I closed the location where I wanted the folders and clicked on okay. Thinking this might have been the reason why my folders never appeared each time when I had clicked NO, this time I clicked YES. Folders still did not appear, and with great alarm, I found they had disappeared also from Explorer. Did a search and they did not come up anywhere. Looked in Deleted Items in OE nothing. Looked in Recycle Bin nothing. Where did they go? How do I get them and my messages back? If I did a system restore, could I recover everything?
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July 7th, 2010 4:21pm

Bruce,Th anks for taking the time to reply. As I said, I did a search for *.dbx and could not find the files. The only ones shown are the standard OE files like INBOX, DELETE, SENT, etc. but not the files I lost.
July 7th, 2010 9:20pm

I am using XP Pro with SP1 and SP2You lost me iwth the dual-boot.As far as using Acronis True Image Home, I have never heard of it and I do not mess with the structure of the hard drive disk. I have an IBM system and trusted them to set it all up properly and I do not mess with it. I will do an occasional defrag. I have a friend who owns a company that works on complete systems for IBM. I just recently asked him about doing a backup and what I should back up. Waiting on his reply, I decided not to backup anything except my data files as I feel if I loose the hard drive, I can recover the programs from the CD's they came on and will have my data which is most important to me. That is one of the reasons why I was moving the email files as I wanted them in a section that would be included in a backup. Until I started to do this, I have never messed with OE file locations. I do not remember what email program I had previously on my old system with WIN95 ? I think, but regardless, the files were in with my data files. I did not want to have to remember to go in and do a special search for one set of files.What I do not understand is why is has been made into such a major deal first to locate them outside of "My Documents" and secondly, to move them. Also, in my old sys, I could go to Explorer and read the email files but you can't (that I know of) in XP. Mircrosoft, instead of making things easier, also complicates things with new versions.
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July 7th, 2010 9:30pm

Steve,Thanks for your reply also, all of you who did! I did try last night, from your web site to go and download your DBXpress program, however, when I clicked on it, it went to a dead link (or at least that is what happened when I did it but should have tried to reload it as often in CHROME you will get a dead link when there is not one). a page not found = dead link. So, I just clicked on the link above to see if it will work for me and it looks like it is loading. I am also going to download the TuneUp Utilities. I certainly hope I did not lose those files as there were all of my emails (important ones) since 2003!What I do not understand is how they could get wiped completely. They should be on the hard drive, somewhere. Are there detailed instructions with your DBExpress program to tell how to attempt to recover these files? Since this happened yesterday, I have done nothing to change the system except shutdown and restart this AM. I have been holding my breath waiting on your answers and my face is getting blue! IF you all can provide any more detail as far as DBExpress and TuneUp, I would appreciate it also.Thanks again,Mr. Indy
July 7th, 2010 9:39pm

Hi Mr Indy,Copy the link above, next to 30-day Free Trial and that paste it onto your Browser. It would answer all your questions.It does have the ability to recover delete files.Also your files may not actual be deleted, if folders.dbx is simply corrupt.Turn on, in Folder Options, located in the Control Panel or after opening up an Explorer Window, like My Documents, you would click at the top, Tools then click Folder Options.Open Folder Options. Click View. Dot Show hidden files and folders. Uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). Click Apply Then OK.Outlook Express Store Folders are located:Drive Letter like C:\Documents and Settings\Mr Indy\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{a bunch of numbers}\Microsoft\Outlook ExpressYou can create unlimited number of Identities. Each Identity Store Folder begins with numbers followed by \Microsoft\Outlook Express.In each Identity, there is a file called folders.dbx.You may either delete that folder, with Outlook Express closed, not started, or you can rename folders.dbx, to folders.bak.If a novice, reboot the computer then restart Outlook Express.Restart Outlook Express.The Emails should return, but not in order, they were originally. You can reorganize them to your liking. thecreator
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July 7th, 2010 10:13pm

DBXpress is very easy to use. It also has a search feature that can locate dbx files if they are still on the computer somewhere (seewww.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4). The issue is that many deleted files may not be recoverable as their disk clusters have been reused and no longer contain messages. The longer you wait the more likely the disk clusters that contained the messages will be reused and the less likely chance you will have of recovering anything. The reason this happens is often users tell OE to relocate the message store, then they close OE and move the files themselves, and then OE creates a new message store when it starts again, and if those files are already moved, it overwrites the files in the destination with empty files, as it no longer has any files to move to the destination location. So this is usually what happens in such circumstances (and its unlikely the old files can be recovered if this is the case, as they have the same filenames). Other times, OE screws up and creates a new message store leaving the old one intact, and sometimes it just self destructs some of the messages. Its very important to backup frequently if you use OE. steve "Mr. Indy" wrote in message news:2e1a429e-e93a-4504-be38-cd9ad410412a...Steve,Thanks for your reply also, all of you who did! I did try last night, from your web site to go and download your DBXpress program, however, when I clicked on it, it went to a dead link (or at least that is what happened when I did it but should have tried to reload it as often in CHROME you will get a dead link when there is not one). a page not found = dead link. So, I just clicked on the link above to see if it will work for me and it looks like it is loading. I am also going to download the TuneUp Utilities. I certainly hope I did not lose those files as there were all of my emails (important ones) since 2003!What I do not understand is how they could get wiped completely. They should be on the hard drive, somewhere. Are there detailed instructions with your DBExpress program to tell how to attempt to recover these files? Since this happened yesterday, I have done nothing to change the system except shutdown and restart this AM. I have been holding my breath waiting on your answers and my face is getting blue! IF you all can provide any more detail as far as DBExpress and TuneUp, I would appreciate it also.Thanks again,Mr. Indy
July 7th, 2010 10:57pm

Okay guys, here is the toughest question. It will require something called a comprimise between the two of you, hopefully thinking together here. You guys have given me two options. Obviously, I cannot do both at the same time and hope for the best results which would be getting my files back. Understanding these files are extremely important and I am desperate to get them back, is it riskier to run one of the two programs first, or does it matter which program I try first? If running one will have an end result of either restoration or complete destruction of the files, and one might bring them back or might not but will not end in destruction of the files, which is which, which is the safest to run first without destroying the files? This is important guys! Critically important, so . . . . which program do I try to recover the files with first? Mr. Indy
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July 8th, 2010 6:51am

By the way, the "Alert me when someone responds to this post" isn't working!
July 8th, 2010 6:52am

The programs do not exclude each other. The file recovery program will likely re-establish the files, but whether or not they will still contain the messages is unclear, so you will still have to import them manually into OE to check (www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#imp1). DBXpress is read only, but as with any other program, it does consume disk clusters during its operation, and the extract from disk feature, because of its complexity, does take up some temporary file space while its running. So I wouldn't advocate one program over the other, except to indicate that the longer you wait, the less chance of recovery you have. steve "Mr. Indy" wrote in message news:ff65185b-688d-4e7f-990c-10bf5dcb7521...Okay guys, here is the toughest question. It will require something called a comprimise between the two of you, hopefully thinking together here. You guys have given me two options. Obviously, I cannot do both at the same time and hope for the best results which would be getting my files back. Understanding these files are extremely important and I am desperate to get them back, is it riskier to run one of the two programs first, or does it matter which program I try first? If running one will have an end result of either restoration or complete destruction of the files, and one might bring them back or might not but will not end in destruction of the files, which is which, which is the safest to run first without destroying the files? This is important guys! Critically important, so . . . . which program do I try to recover the files with first? Mr. Indy
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July 8th, 2010 3:36pm

I have downloaded the trial version. Today, I decided time to dive in and get 'er done. I double clicked the file to open/fun it and immediately, error message: The program is not a valid 32-bit prgram. I have seen this a lot lately when trying to download things. What's up with that? How do I get around it. Guys, I am in real trouble here. These files are ultra critical to me, plus, I dumbed McAfee in favor of TrendMicro and it will not activate as it is supposed to; I downloaded Propel as AT&T used to provide it to those of us they don't want to put on high speed and rather keep us on dial-up but have now stopped so I decided to pay for it myself. I tried to install the latest version of it from CD and everything went bonkers, with nothing working so I took it off and have a ton of other things to do and seem to only be getting further and further behind. What help and email connections I had are all now gone. I am really going nuts here!
July 8th, 2010 10:05pm

I have downloaded the trial version. Today, I decided time to dive in and get 'er done. I double clicked the file to open/fun it and immediately, error message: The program is not a valid 32-bit prgram. I have seen this a lot lately when trying to download things. What's up with that? How do I get around it. Guys, I am in real trouble here. These files are ultra critical to me, plus, I dumbed McAfee in favor of TrendMicro and it will not activate as it is supposed to; I downloaded Propel as AT&T used to provide it to those of us they don't want to put on high speed and rather keep us on dial-up but have now stopped so I decided to pay for it myself. I tried to install the latest version of it from CD and everything went bonkers, with nothing working so I took it off and have a ton of other things to do and seem to only be getting further and further behind. What help and email connections I had are all now gone. I am really going nuts here!Hi Mr. Indy,Have you used Folders Options to View / Show Hidden Files and Folders? Described in an earlier post in this thread. Try downloading the file into a Briefcase folder on the desktop and install from the Briefcase Folder. thecreator
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July 8th, 2010 11:30pm

IS anyone going to reply to this problem, or are we done? HELP!
July 8th, 2010 11:51pm

My answer remains the same as it was at the beginning. steve "Mr. Indy" wrote in message news:fba0dd41-4dcd-4642-88a8-6aeac716ed70...IS anyone going to reply to this problem, or are we done? HELP!------=_NextPart_000_3D1A_01CB1EBF.BE6EF280Content-Type: text/html;charset="Utf-8"Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"><HTML><HEAD><META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><META content="MSHTML 6.00.6001.18470" name=GENERATOR><STYLE></STYLE></HEAD><BODY bgColor=#c0dcc0>My answer remains the same as it was at the beginning. steve "Mr. Indy" wrote in message href="news:fba0dd41-4dcd-4642-88a8-6aeac716ed70">news:fba0dd41-4dcd-4642-88a8-6aeac716ed70...IS anyone going to reply to this problem, or are we done? HELP!</BODY></HTML>
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July 9th, 2010 12:05am

Steve,I believe you and TheCreator. However, I do not have a PayPal account,and am trying to get this fixed yesterday so I do not know how to get your program. But, even if I downloaded it, I am going to get this error about 32-bit valid program so, . . .? I had hoped for an answer earlier today to get this fixed. You just have no idea how desperate I am and the problems I am facing right now. Two of my new programs 1. anti-virus and 2. new version of Propel accelerator have crashed and I need to get them fixed. I am 66 and need to finish painting my house. I have other system problem I need to fix but do not want to change anything on the system until I get or lose for sure the OE messages. I am afraid to create anything new or expand any program for fear of writing on top of where the missing files might be. Funny thing is that when I open OE, and then close it, I keep getting a message to compack the folders. There is only:INBOXOUTBOXSENTDELETEDDRAFTS#rd INBOX one I created today to keep things in because of other problems I am having with email because of my ISP.So, what is to compact? It must be seeing my other folders or is that wishful thinking Mr.INDY
July 9th, 2010 1:44am

You do not need a PayPal account to purchase through PayPal. You only need a credit card. Others do not have problems with my software. If your computer does, then then is something wrong with your computer. But since you haven't even tried it, no one will ever know. steve "Mr. Indy" wrote in message news:799571c0-8eda-4f45-a142-85a687cb3d48...Steve,I believe you and TheCreator. However, I do not have a PayPal account,and am trying to get this fixed yesterday so I do not know how to get your program. But, even if I downloaded it, I am going to get this error about 32-bit valid program so, . . .? I had hoped for an answer earlier today to get this fixed. You just have no idea how desperate I am and the problems I am facing right now. Two of my new programs 1. anti-virus and 2. new version of Propel accelerator have crashed and I need to get them fixed. I am 66 and need to finish painting my house. I have other system problem I need to fix but do not want to change anything on the system until I get or lose for sure the OE messages. I am afraid to create anything new or expand any program for fear of writing on top of where the missing files might be. Funny thing is that when I open OE, and then close it, I keep getting a message to compack the folders. There is only:INBOXOUTBOXSENTDELETEDDRAFTS#rd INBOX one I created today to keep things in because of other problems I am having with email because of my ISP.So, what is to compact? It must be seeing my other folders or is that wishful thinking Mr.INDY
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July 9th, 2010 4:13pm

Steve,I believe you and TheCreator. However, I do not have a PayPal account,and am trying to get this fixed yesterday so I do not know how to get your program. But, even if I downloaded it, I am going to get this error about 32-bit valid program so, . . .? I had hoped for an answer earlier today to get this fixed. You just have no idea how desperate I am and the problems I am facing right now. Two of my new programs 1. anti-virus and 2. new version of Propel accelerator have crashed and I need to get them fixed. I am 66 and need to finish painting my house. I have other system problem I need to fix but do not want to change anything on the system until I get or lose for sure the OE messages. I am afraid to create anything new or expand any program for fear of writing on top of where the missing files might be. Funny thing is that when I open OE, and then close it, I keep getting a message to compack the folders. There is only:INBOXOUTBOXSENTDELETEDDRAFTS#rd INBOX one I created today to keep things in because of other problems I am having with email because of my ISP.So, what is to compact? It must be seeing my other folders or is that wishful thinking Mr.INDY Hi Mr. Indy,I am willing to help you through Remote Assistance, if you are willing.You need to use Windows Live Messenger or Windows Messenger and add : Email removed for privacy to your Contact list and the Service will inform me at no charge.I don't think that you know what I am referring to, with Folder Options. thecreator
July 9th, 2010 8:53pm

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