This is for a client's machine. It's running xp pro sp3, all updates are installed. her problem, when i click on OLE, the hour glass figure appears briefly and then disappear, not error message. recently, her hard drive ran out of space. she complained that she couldn't open OLE anymore. I went onsite and cloned the old HD onto a much bigger hard drive. the hd now runs smoothly except won't load OLE. same symptoms as before the the cloning. i had so far, remove OLE from add/remove programs and re-installed. Copy all her dbx files in her store folder. Create a 2nd user, and copy all her dbx files into the 2nd user store folders. When I logged in as 2nd user, OLE launched w/o problem and all her email is there. I can sent and receive email. any ideas on what the problem is? thx 1 person got this answerI do too

Yes, that fixed it. It was long and tedious. This customer's machine hadn't got any maintenance since 2006 when I set it up. Hope she will use me more often in the future. Thank you so much! Save me $ 60 plus I am sure it will take much much longer!

You're welcome & glad you had success. Some reading for your customer.General precautions for Outlook Express:Do not archive mail in the Inbox or Sent Items. Create your own user defined folders and move the messages you wish to save to them. Empty Deleted Items folder daily. Although dbx files have a theoretical capacity of 2GB, I recommend about a 300MB max for less chance of corruption.Information about the maximum file size of the .dbx files that are used by Outlook Express:http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=903095After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually while working *offline* and do it often.Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders are open. Then: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until the compacting is completed.Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3And backup often.Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx Bruce Hagen ~ MS-MVP [Mail]

I think she separates all her email into sub-folders already. She isn't very technically inclined and still running XP despite I am trying to nudge her towards win 7. i guess time will tell.

She needs to backup frequently if she values her messages. Seewww.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#6 steve <slam5> wrote in message news:Email removed for privacy...I think she separates all her email into sub-folders already. She isn't very technically inclined and still running XP despite I am trying to nudge her towards win 7. i guess time will tell.

Now there is another problem!! Her address book is corrupted. She has 3 ident, and each of them has its own add book. She now only see the common address book. But the address book is not lost; she has an address.wab on the desktop that has addresses of all the identities. Is there a way to re-import them back into each identity. I would had fixed it if I understand how the identities are orgranized. but i need a solution in a hurry! sigh...

You really ought to unmark your own post as the answer. Once a thread is marked as an answer it may easily be ignored, not to mention that you were not the person that provided the answer anyway.Open the Address Book in a new identity and File | Import | Address Book (wab) and point to the Address Book on the Desktop. Repeat for the other identities.Bruce Hagen ~ MS-MVP [Mail]Imperial Beach, CA

Hi, thanks a lot for the answers. She now has her email back (more or less) before she goes on a trip to LV. She now has an external HDD and will use synctoy to backup. Furthermore, she will be using mozy to backup her data. The only problem is I still have to make sure ALL the identities are backup as Mozy will only backup the default identity.

If she gets this backup tool, all messages, rules, personal settings, etc., are backed up to a user created folder that can be located anywhere. I kept mine in My Documents. This folder would be backed up by Mozy and all bases are covered.Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx Bruce HagenMS-MVP Oct. 1, 2004 ~ Sept. 30, 2010Imperial Beach, CA