A Question concerning Outlook Express

[HeDied4U]

Yes, I am back to pester and bug the heck out of all you experts here. Geez, ain't I a pain??? LOL

Seriously, I am wondering if there is any way of preserving e-mails saved in local folders on OE?

Here's my problem; My current computer isn't the world's best. Twice within the last 6 months I have had to do a complete system restore in order to get my computer working again. I don't know if I picked up a bug somewhere along the lines or what, but it's very annoying. I back up my more important files every week in the event I have to "restore" the computer to its "right out of the box" state. However, I haven't been able to figure out a way to save "local" folder e-mails. I have lost a ton of important stuff that way.

So, any suggestions, tips, hints, or help?? As always, any information and/or help provided will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, and God Bless!!!

Adam

 

[dianetavegia]

Adam, if you save it to a new folder on your desktop wouldn't that be backed up and saved when you do your 'save'? The reason I ask is that I 'lost everything' when my old computer went bad. The tech saved some basic things for me, including my desktop items and put them on a floppy for my new XP. I had my email stationary with music and scrolling pictures stored there. I didn't lose any midi files, stationary, etc.

Also, I installed Spyware and it really upset my new computer. I uninstalled but had a constant error. I restored my computer to a week previously and regained everything in perfect condition. I'm not a tech and taught myself what little I know but I'm sure there's an easy fix for this!

Diane

 

[Refreshed]

Adam,

This is what I do. I place my message store folder in "My Documents" so when I back up "My Documents," the e-mails are backed up as well.

Here is how to change the location of your message store:

1. Open OE.
2. Click on the Tools menu.
3. Click on options.
4. Click on the maintenance tab.
5. Click on "Store folder."
6. Click the "Change" button.
7. Find "My Documents" in the menu that comes up and select it.
8. Click okay.
9. Click okay again, and you'll be back to step number 3.

You can put the message store anywhere on your computer, making it easy to back up.

Jason

 

[Barnabas H.]

Jason, I followed your step by step instructions and I lost all my Outlook Express files. It is wiped out clean. Question: Do you have a reverse direction to get back the information? Or if you know where to look to retrieve them on the hard-drive?

 

[Refreshed]

Originally posted by Barnabas7:
Jason, I followed your step by step instructions and I lost all my Outlook Express files. It is wiped out clean. Question: Do you have a reverse direction to get back the information? Or if you know where to look to retrieve them on the hard-drive?

Wow, never had that happen! Sorry about that!

Click on "start", "find", "files and folders" and search for "message store". Wherever that is located, your dbx files should be there (those are the individual folders in your e-mail such as inbox, friends, etc.). When you closed OE and reopened it, it should have relocated the files to the folder you changed it to. I just followed my own directions again on my computer and was able to move them without deleting them.

PM me, and we'll see if we can get your files back, I'll check my PMs frequently.

Sorry

Jason

 

[Sherrie]

....Whew! Because I was going to do those steps tonight. Thanks Barnabas for being a true leader! Whew! I would be panicing!

Let me know all the secrets, so when I do it, all the bugs will be out.

Sherrie

 

[Barnabas H.]

I got back my lost files, thanks to Jason's suggestion - but unable to open them as of yet. Have to get the bug out of the system...

 

[Refreshed]

Originally posted by Barnabas7:
I got back my lost files, thanks to Jason's suggestion - but unable to open them as of yet. Have to get the bug out of the system...

 

[Barnabas H.]

Jason, I got that program you were referring to and got back my files. Not only those I lost but also all the deleted junk mail, to the tune of 2,300 of them, and the search was not finished at the time. The gage went up only 3/4 of the way, but I had to stop the search after 3 hours.

But now I am back to the same predicament. I have the files back into My Documents, but I am unable to open them. When I click on a goup of files, like "Family" where I should have at least 90 emails, the following window comes up: "Starting Word as your email editor," and then the email itself pops up: Untitled Message - Microsoft Word."

On the Attchament line there is an attachment of my file group, "Family," but when I want to open another email format pops up with the same information. So, questions: How do I convert that file to be able to read it, and how do I tranfer them back to where they belong, the Outlook Express file? Any advise?

 

[Refreshed]

To make Outlook Express your default e-mail handler, follow these instructions.

1. Click on tools, then options.
2. Select the "general" tab.
3. Under "default messaging programs," click "make default."

That should take care of Outlook express being the default mail handler.

As far as the files retrieved go, we need to know what format the program brought them back in. Right click on one of the icons and check the properties. If they are still *.dbx files, that's a good thing. If they are do this:

1. Follow the instructions to move the "message store" to "my documents."
2. Highlight the *.dbx files that you salvaged (they should already be in the "my documents" folder from what you wrote above). Copy them into the newly created "message store" folder within "my documents." Note: the new "message store" folder will have been created when you follow step 1.
3. Open up Outlook Express and you should be able to see the different categories now.

If they are no longer *.dbx files, we'll have to try to find a way to convert them, but we need to know what kind they are first.

Jason

 

[Barnabas H.]

Originally posted by Refreshed: To make Outlook Express your default e-mail handler, follow these instructions.

1. Click on tools, then options.
2. Select the "general" tab.
3. Under "default messaging programs," click "make default."

That should take care of Outlook express being the default mail handler.

Jason, when I opened the General tab I found two options. One was, "This application is the default Mail handler" which was already made default. The other one was "This application is NOT the default News handler." I left it as was.

Originally posted by Refreshed: As far as the files retrieved go, we need to know what format the program brought them back in. Right click on one of the icons and check the properties. If they are still *.dbx files, that's a good thing. If they are do this:

1. Follow the instructions to move the "message store" to "my documents."

I had to stop with item number 1, because I do not know what you mean by "Message Store." Where do I find it, how do I move it? By the way, the files are dbx, but here is how one looks at the Properties:

Type: DBX File
Location: C:\My Documents
Size: 136 KBT

 

[Refreshed]

Hey, we're almost there! OE is already your default mail handler, so ignore my instructions above.

The message store is where Outlook Express looks for e-mail messages.

Follow these instructions:

1. Open OE.
2. Click "tools" then "options."
3. Click the "maintenance" tab.
4. Click "store folder."
5. Click the "Change" button.
6. Find "My Documents" in the menu that comes up and select it.
7. Click okay.
8. Click okay again, and you'll be back to step number 3.
9. Click okay.

Close and reopen OE. It should go through a process of moving your files.

Close OE once again.

Follow these steps:

1. Highlight the *.dbx files that you salvaged (they should already be in the "my documents" folder from what you wrote above). Copy them into the newly created "message store" folder within "my documents." Note: the new "message store" folder will have been created when you follow the above instructions.
2. Open up Outlook Express and you should be able to see the different categories now.

 

[Barnabas H.]

I am sorry but it did not create any folder in the "My Document" file. Just doesn't work. I finished steps 1-9... by the way, step #6 already showed that my files were in C:\My Documnets storage. But the process did not create the much desired "Message Store" folder. So, what's next?

 

[Refreshed]

Barnabas,

Please do a search for "message store" on your computer and tell me where it is, if it is anywhere.

Click start, find, files or folders, type in "message store."

Sorry if some of the instructions are too basic, it's hard to diagnose problems over a message forum.

Jason

 

[Barnabas H.]

Jason, this is the result of the search you requested for "Message Store" in my computer:

Pstores C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM 80 KB Application 4/23/99 10:22 PM
store C:\Program Files\Common Files\CMEII File Folder 5/12/03 10:20 PM
Mstore C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 102 KB Application 2/26/01 11:05 PM
Nrestore C:\Program Files\ahead\Nero 233 KB Application 12/26/99 2:26 PM

There is no "Message Store" as we know it.

 

[Sularis]

Hrm - ok if all your files are in outlook express

you can find the directory where the files that the mail is represented by clicking on tools options maintenance

and you can copy those files to the general area you want

Its a very poor fix - it does work however

- The proper solution is to mix Jasons steps with mine - that should allow you to keep all your emails and even move them to another computer

 

[Barnabas H.]

Sularis, I already have them moved to "My Documents" but now I cannot open them over there. Something happened in between transit... and I lost all the email records (some of them pretty important) to some kind of a computer glitch.

 

[HeDied4U]

Yikes!!

I guess I really opened up a can of worms with this one, didn't I?

I think my solution will be to buy some extra space on a hotmail or excite e-mail account and forward all my important e-mails there. That way if my computer "dies" again, I'll have them all stored elsewhere. After seeing what Barnabas is going through, I want no part of message stores, .dbx files and the like.

God Bless!!!

Adam

 

[Barnabas H.]

Adam, I am still battling this problem. Downloaded this free program, which supposed to find deleted files and put them together into their respective groups. Well, I did find my 300-400 emails (which I was looking for), plus 1,600 additional ones (probably all the deleted files, webpages, junk mail, etc). And the computer was still searching when I shut it off.

Now, the files could not be opened without a key. And in order to get the key, you had to purchase the program. When I get them opened, I could not save them because the computer gave me this error message that I cannot save them on the same hard-drive I had them before. So, now I had the files but could not save them. I contacted the company and the technicians told me to save it on a floppy. Which I did, but when I opened it, the email was not the one I originally had but a current one from the Outlook Express.

After that they suggested that I get another program, Mailbag Assistant. I purchased that one too, and now I had the emails in groups but unable to save. So, if I want to look for an email from way back I have to go through the search each time (because it will not save).... It is not the kind of fun I would recommend to the faint hearted.

And I am still waiting for the steps which will reverse this madness... On the hindsight, I think I just should have saved the emails in a file instead of transferring the same into the oblivion.

 

[Hardsheller]

This brings up something I have been debating for a while.

Should I upgrade to Outlook and get away from Outlook Express?

I too like to file my emails for future reference. It looks like this is a futile dream with Outlook Express.

What do you think? Should I buy Outlook?