Please Help! My Outlook Express

[Igwiz]

Please Help!

My Outlook Express has gone bananas. All my folders have been emptied, (when I search my hard drive nearly all my dbx files are now 59k in size), I cannot send or receive emails. I don't mind reinstalling OE but where have my messages gone?

Many thanks,
Ig

(sorry for posting this in two places)

 

[calvin2]

Did you do any "spring cleaning" with Outlook Express? Such as clicking the "Clean Up Now.." button in the Maintenance Tab of OE's Option box? If so, you might have deleted all your messages...

Did you do any change in OE's configuration lately?

 

[Igwiz]

I have done nothing to OE recently. The only thing I did this morning was to uninstall Norton AntiVirus and clicked yes when it said "Delete Quarantined Files?" I'm now getting nervous.

 

[calvin2]

I cannot answer that question directly... since I have not used NAV... but as far as I know, NAV does put e-mail attachments in their quarantine folder. I'm just not sure if NAV redirects OE's e-mail store folder to the quarantine folder too.

If this is the case, then NAV must have restored OE's default store folder and deleted the quarantine folder where OE previously stored your e-mails.

Try to recover the deleted files with this :

http://www.solanasoft.com/free-data-recovery-software.shtml

I'm just not sure if it will work with encrypted filed...

 

[Igwiz]

Thanks Calvin2. I will try that when I get back home tomorrow as I'm out tonight. I tried doing an inplace XP re-install to no avail. Hopefully that hasn't stopped me being able to recover any other data. What is confusing is that all the .dbx files for the the different folders are still there but are all empty!

 

[calvin2]

Well, OE will create a new set of .dbx files if it cannot find the old ones... and the size that you've mention are the defualt sizes when these .dbx files are first created.

 

[Igwiz]

That's what I thought. So do you think I will be able to recover the old ones? If new files with the same name have been created in the same location, surely I am doomed!?

 

[calvin2]

there's no harm in trying... but if you have lots of mails, I'm sure these files had been a lot larger in size... I'm pretty sure you would be able to salvage part of it.

 

[Igwiz]

Can't hurt to try - will let you know how it goes! Cheers