Replies

Yes, Outlook Express.

Are you able to receive new emails still?

If you deleted it, it is in the deleted folder. Unless you took the active step of emptying the deleted mail folder. I have thousands of messaged in the deleted mail folder because I am too lazy to finish the deletion.

If messages are gone and are not in the deleted mail folder, you need some professional help. -- not kidding or being rude here --

Here's a good article on recovering lost emails. It might be an easy fix to just tell Outlook Express to "View/Current View/Show All Messages" from the View menu, or may require some tweaking of your database files. If you decide to tweak any files, please do the smart thing and ask for help.

http://cooltech.iafrica.com/swissarmy/howto/155282.htm

HOW TO...
Recover lost emails

Question
Hi.

Over the past few months I have been noticing something strange happing to my emails in my inbox. It seems that some emails I have received have disappeared. I have not deleted anything from my inbox, they are just gone.

Please help.

Answer
First check the obvious.
Click View -> Current View and be sure it is set to "Show All Messages". Also verify that "Show replies to my messages" is not checked or you will see only replies to your messages.

If the Current View setting is correct, then the *.dbx file for the problem folder has been damaged or deleted. Older versions of McAfee VirusScan are known to delete OE's *.dbx files if the email or Internet download scan is enabled. You can download a patch on the McAfee web site, or simply disable both the email and Internet download scan modules in VirusScan. These are not necessary to protect your computer if you still have VirusScan running in the background and scanning executable files as they are opened. In fact, the only real reason to use email and download scanning is to make you feel more secure. If this is the cause of your problem, I am sorry to say your messages are irretrievably lost.

In the case of a damaged "Inbox.dbx" file, a new Inbox with the default "Welcome to Outlook Express" message will have been created automatically, and will now be using the file "Inbox(1).dbx" or similar. Likewise a new *.dbx file will have been created for any of the "system" folders that are damaged, Drafts, Deleted Items, Outbox and Sent Items.

If your default email account is Hotmail or IMAP, the associated files will be named like "Hotmail - Inbox.dbx" or " - Inbox.dbx", etc.

However the original *.dbx file will still be there, although Outlook Express will be unable to display it.

If the damaged *.dbx file still exists, or its temporary version *.dbt, move it to a new empty folder in Windows Explorer. You can then try DBXtract to extract what messages it can.