Missing sent items

Tom Brown · External Since: Jun 30, 2009 Posts: 5

Another strange one. My wife just discovered that all emails in the Sent
Items between Jan 1, 2009 and May 28, 2009 are missing and I can't find them
anywhere. What could cause this?

We routinely archive all Sent Items from previous years in customized
folders like Saved Sent 2007 or Saved Sent 2008, hence the Jan 1, 2009 date
being the first one in the current Sent Items. She is running XP and IE 7.

Tom

Bruce Hagen · External Since: Apr 17, 2004 Posts: 12701

Methinks you waited too long to archive.

The two most common reasons for what you describe is disruption of the
compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), or bloated
folders. More on that below.

Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact

Why Mail Disappears:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone

About File Corruption:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx

Recovery tools:

If you are running XP/SP2, or SP3, and are fully patched, then you should
have a backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, (or possibly the message
store), copied as bak files.

To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first find the location
of the Message Store.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to it in
Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.

In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these
files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start
| Control Panel | Folder Options | View.

Close OE and then in Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the
missing, or empty, folder and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted
later once you have successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the Message
Store.

Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact* same
name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If the
file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new folder
and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue on to
the next step.

First, check if there is a bak file already in the message store. If there
is, and you removed the dbx file, go ahead and rename it to dbx.

If it isn't already in the message store, open the Recycle bin and right
click on the bak file for the folder in question and click Restore. Open the
message store back up and change the file extension from .bak to .dbx. Close
the message store and open OE. The messages should now be back in the
folder.

If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete the
old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.

If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:

DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode is the best chance to recover
messages:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

And see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

A general warning to help avoid this in the future:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move
your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user created
folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving, and
causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting changes
and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

And backup often.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA

"Tom Brown" <NoSpam.RemoveThis@foo.net> wrote in message
news:eOzE3Bb%23JHA.3340@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Another strange one. My wife just discovered that all emails in the Sent
> Items between Jan 1, 2009 and May 28, 2009 are missing and I can't find
> them anywhere. What could cause this?
>
> We routinely archive all Sent Items from previous years in customized
> folders like Saved Sent 2007 or Saved Sent 2008, hence the Jan 1, 2009
> date being the first one in the current Sent Items. She is running XP
> and IE 7.
>
> Tom
>
>

Tom Brown · External Since: Jun 30, 2009 Posts: 5

Thanks Bruce and PA Bear,

I tried all the monkeying around with the Sent Items.dbx and .bak files and
Recycle Bin and those messages in that date range seem to be gone fair and
square. So, now I am going through our nightly backups and restoring the
Sent Items.dbx for each night. Each attempt takes about 15 minutes and so
far I am only back to June 22 and have not located when they disappeared
yet.

But, let's assume I do find a Sent Items.dbx that has the messages included.
Is there any way to APPEND/ADD the sent messages from that date to today
after I restore the folder?

Thanks,

Tom

"Tom Brown" <NoSpam DeleteThis @foo.net> wrote in message
news:eOzE3Bb#JHA.3340@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Another strange one. My wife just discovered that all emails in the Sent
> Items between Jan 1, 2009 and May 28, 2009 are missing and I can't find
> them anywhere. What could cause this?
>
> We routinely archive all Sent Items from previous years in customized
> folders like Saved Sent 2007 or Saved Sent 2008, hence the Jan 1, 2009
> date being the first one in the current Sent Items. She is running XP
> and IE 7.
>
> Tom
>
>
>

Bruce Hagen · External Since: Apr 17, 2004 Posts: 12701

IMHO, what you should do is create a 2009 Sent Items archive folder now and
once a day, drag all your Sent Items messages to it. Don't wait until
January, 2010.

If you find a dbx file with the missing messages, you may be able to move
the messages in among the others. Post back if you find something and we can
discuss it at that time.

You still have the option of DBXpress if these messages are that important
to you.

DBXpress:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

You may need to run it in the Extract From Disk Mode if its normal recovery
mode fails to find the lost messages.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA

"Tom Brown" <NoSpam.DeleteThis@foo.net> wrote in message
news:ekdajGc%23JHA.5092@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Thanks Bruce and PA Bear,
>
> I tried all the monkeying around with the Sent Items.dbx and .bak files
> and Recycle Bin and those messages in that date range seem to be gone fair
> and square. So, now I am going through our nightly backups and restoring
> the Sent Items.dbx for each night. Each attempt takes about 15 minutes
> and so far I am only back to June 22 and have not located when they
> disappeared yet.
>
> But, let's assume I do find a Sent Items.dbx that has the messages
> included. Is there any way to APPEND/ADD the sent messages from that date
> to today after I restore the folder?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom
>
>
> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.DeleteThis@foo.net> wrote in message
> news:eOzE3Bb#JHA.3340@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> Another strange one. My wife just discovered that all emails in the Sent
>> Items between Jan 1, 2009 and May 28, 2009 are missing and I can't find
>> them anywhere. What could cause this?
>>
>> We routinely archive all Sent Items from previous years in customized
>> folders like Saved Sent 2007 or Saved Sent 2008, hence the Jan 1, 2009
>> date being the first one in the current Sent Items. She is running XP
>> and IE 7.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>>

PA Bear [MS MVP] · External Since: Jan 08, 2009 Posts: 228

Why it happens:

http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx

Recovering the missing data: http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx (#2 and #4)
and http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=918069 (see Notes section under
Resolution)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DBXpress (faster, more powerful, with even greater functionality than
DBXtract)
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Avoiding Such Corruption in Future:

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Frequently perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working
offline". More at http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

- Do not cancel Automatic Compacting, should it occur, and do not attempt to
close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if Automatic Compacting
is taking place.

- Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can cause
corruption (i.e., loss of messages) and provides no additional protection:

Why you don't need your anti-virus to scan your email
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm

--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002

Tom Brown wrote:
> Another strange one. My wife just discovered that all emails in the Sent
> Items between Jan 1, 2009 and May 28, 2009 are missing and I can't find
> them
> anywhere. What could cause this?
>
> We routinely archive all Sent Items from previous years in customized
> folders like Saved Sent 2007 or Saved Sent 2008, hence the Jan 1, 2009
> date
> being the first one in the current Sent Items. She is running XP and IE
> 7.
>
> Tom

PA Bear [MS MVP] · External Since: Jan 08, 2009 Posts: 228

Import the file this way only, please:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/how.htm#importdbx

The file should NOT be imported into or replace the contents of your current
Sent Items folder, which should ALWAYS be kept as empty as possible. See
caveats in previous reply.

Tom Brown wrote:
> Thanks Bruce and PA Bear,
>
> I tried all the monkeying around with the Sent Items.dbx and .bak files
> and
> Recycle Bin and those messages in that date range seem to be gone fair and
> square. So, now I am going through our nightly backups and restoring the
> Sent Items.dbx for each night. Each attempt takes about 15 minutes and so
> far I am only back to June 22 and have not located when they disappeared
> yet.
>
> But, let's assume I do find a Sent Items.dbx that has the messages
> included.
> Is there any way to APPEND/ADD the sent messages from that date to today
> after I restore the folder?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom
>
>
> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.DeleteThis@foo.net> wrote in message
> news:eOzE3Bb#JHA.3340@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> Another strange one. My wife just discovered that all emails in the Sent
>> Items between Jan 1, 2009 and May 28, 2009 are missing and I can't find
>> them anywhere. What could cause this?
>>
>> We routinely archive all Sent Items from previous years in customized
>> folders like Saved Sent 2007 or Saved Sent 2008, hence the Jan 1, 2009
>> date being the first one in the current Sent Items. She is running XP
>> and IE 7.
>>
>> Tom

Tom Brown · External Since: Jun 30, 2009 Posts: 5

OK, thanks for the tips.

Actually, I was able to recover most of the missing emails from my nightly
backup from a few weeks ago. After I got them restored, I tried to do a
manual "compact all folders" and I think I have discovered where one
problem is.

During the compaction, a couple of the folders give "bonk" and an error
message saying "The folder is currently in use by Outlook Express or by
another application." That required me to click on the box to clear that
error and proceed with the compaction. What gives with that? They were not
in use at all.

Then, this brings me to the real culprit. After I had cleared a couple of
those error messages, I noticed that it seemed to be taking a long time on
one folder. So, I tried to move the mouse and I found that the whole
machine was frozen. It stayed that way for a couple of hours and I could not
get the Task Manager or anything. So, I was required to do a power-off
crash to get the blasted thing running again. So, there is our problem ....
I had to do a crash during compaction. I didn't see that I had any other
choice.

Any suggestions other than the ones you have already mentioned about keeping
the folders small?

Tom

"Bruce Hagen" <Nospam.RemoveThis@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
news:#qibZLc#JHA.3768@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> IMHO, what you should do is create a 2009 Sent Items archive folder now
> and once a day, drag all your Sent Items messages to it. Don't wait until
> January, 2010.
>
> If you find a dbx file with the missing messages, you may be able to move
> the messages in among the others. Post back if you find something and we
> can discuss it at that time.
>
> You still have the option of DBXpress if these messages are that important
> to you.
>
> DBXpress:
> http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx
>
> You may need to run it in the Extract From Disk Mode if its normal
> recovery mode fails to find the lost messages.
> --
>
> Bruce Hagen
> MS-MVP [Mail]
> Imperial Beach, CA
>
>
> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.RemoveThis@foo.net> wrote in message
> news:ekdajGc%23JHA.5092@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> Thanks Bruce and PA Bear,
>>
>> I tried all the monkeying around with the Sent Items.dbx and .bak files
>> and Recycle Bin and those messages in that date range seem to be gone
>> fair and square. So, now I am going through our nightly backups and
>> restoring the Sent Items.dbx for each night. Each attempt takes about 15
>> minutes and so far I am only back to June 22 and have not located when
>> they disappeared yet.
>>
>> But, let's assume I do find a Sent Items.dbx that has the messages
>> included. Is there any way to APPEND/ADD the sent messages from that date
>> to today after I restore the folder?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.RemoveThis@foo.net> wrote in message
>> news:eOzE3Bb#JHA.3340@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>> Another strange one. My wife just discovered that all emails in the
>>> Sent Items between Jan 1, 2009 and May 28, 2009 are missing and I can't
>>> find them anywhere. What could cause this?
>>>
>>> We routinely archive all Sent Items from previous years in customized
>>> folders like Saved Sent 2007 or Saved Sent 2008, hence the Jan 1, 2009
>>> date being the first one in the current Sent Items. She is running XP
>>> and IE 7.
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>

Bruce Hagen · External Since: Apr 17, 2004 Posts: 12701

Are you compacting in this manner?

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.

Compact Your OE Folders:
http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact

Did you determine which folders compacting hung on? What are the sizes of
your dbx files right now? (Just those over 300MB).
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA

"Tom Brown" <NoSpam DeleteThis @foo.net> wrote in message
news:eANpQwF$JHA.5780@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> OK, thanks for the tips.
>
> Actually, I was able to recover most of the missing emails from my nightly
> backup from a few weeks ago. After I got them restored, I tried to do a
> manual "compact all folders" and I think I have discovered where one
> problem is.
>
> During the compaction, a couple of the folders give "bonk" and an error
> message saying "The folder is currently in use by Outlook Express or by
> another application." That required me to click on the box to clear that
> error and proceed with the compaction. What gives with that? They were
> not in use at all.
>
> Then, this brings me to the real culprit. After I had cleared a couple of
> those error messages, I noticed that it seemed to be taking a long time on
> one folder. So, I tried to move the mouse and I found that the whole
> machine was frozen. It stayed that way for a couple of hours and I could
> not get the Task Manager or anything. So, I was required to do a
> power-off crash to get the blasted thing running again. So, there is our
> problem .... I had to do a crash during compaction. I didn't see that I
> had any other choice.
>
> Any suggestions other than the ones you have already mentioned about
> keeping the folders small?
>
> Tom
>
>
>
>
> "Bruce Hagen" <Nospam DeleteThis @mymail.invalid> wrote in message
> news:#qibZLc#JHA.3768@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> IMHO, what you should do is create a 2009 Sent Items archive folder now
>> and once a day, drag all your Sent Items messages to it. Don't wait until
>> January, 2010.
>>
>> If you find a dbx file with the missing messages, you may be able to move
>> the messages in among the others. Post back if you find something and we
>> can discuss it at that time.
>>
>> You still have the option of DBXpress if these messages are that
>> important to you.
>>
>> DBXpress:
>> http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx
>>
>> You may need to run it in the Extract From Disk Mode if its normal
>> recovery mode fails to find the lost messages.
>> --
>>
>> Bruce Hagen
>> MS-MVP [Mail]
>> Imperial Beach, CA
>>
>>
>> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam DeleteThis @foo.net> wrote in message
>> news:ekdajGc%23JHA.5092@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>> Thanks Bruce and PA Bear,
>>>
>>> I tried all the monkeying around with the Sent Items.dbx and .bak files
>>> and Recycle Bin and those messages in that date range seem to be gone
>>> fair and square. So, now I am going through our nightly backups and
>>> restoring the Sent Items.dbx for each night. Each attempt takes about
>>> 15 minutes and so far I am only back to June 22 and have not located
>>> when they disappeared yet.
>>>
>>> But, let's assume I do find a Sent Items.dbx that has the messages
>>> included. Is there any way to APPEND/ADD the sent messages from that
>>> date to today after I restore the folder?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>
>>>
>>> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam DeleteThis @foo.net> wrote in message
>>> news:eOzE3Bb#JHA.3340@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>> Another strange one. My wife just discovered that all emails in the
>>>> Sent Items between Jan 1, 2009 and May 28, 2009 are missing and I can't
>>>> find them anywhere. What could cause this?
>>>>
>>>> We routinely archive all Sent Items from previous years in customized
>>>> folders like Saved Sent 2007 or Saved Sent 2008, hence the Jan 1, 2009
>>>> date being the first one in the current Sent Items. She is running XP
>>>> and IE 7.
>>>>
>>>> Tom
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>

Tom Brown · External Since: Jun 30, 2009 Posts: 5

Bruce,

I can't be certain which folders gave me the error message, but I do recall
that one of them was a default folder (maybe Sent or Deleted Items?) and one
of them was a folder I made (maybe Saved Sent 2006). I did always go to the
top of the tree before starting a manual compaction operation but I don't
think I remembered to go offline.

But, since I wrote to you, we have discovered that we lost the contents of
21 custom folders when it hung and I had to crash it. I have subsequently
restored them but to be honest, I am afraid to compact again. I'll try
again next week as we are getting ready to head out of town and I don't need
the aggravation right now.

Right now, the largest .dbx folder in the directory is 1,041,099 KB and if
my math is correct, that is about 127 MB (thank you Google). Most of the
ones we lost were in the 2000 KB to 55,000 KB range. So, to make a long
answer short, none of our folders is nearly as large as 300 MB.

Thanks,

Tom

"Bruce Hagen" <Nospam.TakeThisOut@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
news:O4B8bzF$JHA.5780@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Are you compacting in this manner?
>
> Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders are
> open. Then: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the
> Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything
> until the compacting is completed.
>
> Compact Your OE Folders:
> http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact
>
> Did you determine which folders compacting hung on? What are the sizes of
> your dbx files right now? (Just those over 300MB).
> --
>
> Bruce Hagen
> MS-MVP [Mail]
> Imperial Beach, CA
>
>
> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.TakeThisOut@foo.net> wrote in message
> news:eANpQwF$JHA.5780@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> OK, thanks for the tips.
>>
>> Actually, I was able to recover most of the missing emails from my
>> nightly backup from a few weeks ago. After I got them restored, I tried
>> to do a manual "compact all folders" and I think I have discovered where
>> one problem is.
>>
>> During the compaction, a couple of the folders give "bonk" and an error
>> message saying "The folder is currently in use by Outlook Express or by
>> another application." That required me to click on the box to clear that
>> error and proceed with the compaction. What gives with that? They were
>> not in use at all.
>>
>> Then, this brings me to the real culprit. After I had cleared a couple
>> of those error messages, I noticed that it seemed to be taking a long
>> time on one folder. So, I tried to move the mouse and I found that the
>> whole machine was frozen. It stayed that way for a couple of hours and I
>> could not get the Task Manager or anything. So, I was required to do a
>> power-off crash to get the blasted thing running again. So, there is our
>> problem .... I had to do a crash during compaction. I didn't see that I
>> had any other choice.
>>
>> Any suggestions other than the ones you have already mentioned about
>> keeping the folders small?
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Bruce Hagen" <Nospam.TakeThisOut@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
>> news:#qibZLc#JHA.3768@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>> IMHO, what you should do is create a 2009 Sent Items archive folder now
>>> and once a day, drag all your Sent Items messages to it. Don't wait
>>> until January, 2010.
>>>
>>> If you find a dbx file with the missing messages, you may be able to
>>> move the messages in among the others. Post back if you find something
>>> and we can discuss it at that time.
>>>
>>> You still have the option of DBXpress if these messages are that
>>> important to you.
>>>
>>> DBXpress:
>>> http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx
>>>
>>> You may need to run it in the Extract From Disk Mode if its normal
>>> recovery mode fails to find the lost messages.
>>> --
>>>
>>> Bruce Hagen
>>> MS-MVP [Mail]
>>> Imperial Beach, CA
>>>
>>>
>>> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.TakeThisOut@foo.net> wrote in message
>>> news:ekdajGc%23JHA.5092@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>> Thanks Bruce and PA Bear,
>>>>
>>>> I tried all the monkeying around with the Sent Items.dbx and .bak files
>>>> and Recycle Bin and those messages in that date range seem to be gone
>>>> fair and square. So, now I am going through our nightly backups and
>>>> restoring the Sent Items.dbx for each night. Each attempt takes about
>>>> 15 minutes and so far I am only back to June 22 and have not located
>>>> when they disappeared yet.
>>>>
>>>> But, let's assume I do find a Sent Items.dbx that has the messages
>>>> included. Is there any way to APPEND/ADD the sent messages from that
>>>> date to today after I restore the folder?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> Tom
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.TakeThisOut@foo.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:eOzE3Bb#JHA.3340@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>>> Another strange one. My wife just discovered that all emails in the
>>>>> Sent Items between Jan 1, 2009 and May 28, 2009 are missing and I
>>>>> can't find them anywhere. What could cause this?
>>>>>
>>>>> We routinely archive all Sent Items from previous years in customized
>>>>> folders like Saved Sent 2007 or Saved Sent 2008, hence the Jan 1, 2009
>>>>> date being the first one in the current Sent Items. She is running
>>>>> XP and IE 7.
>>>>>
>>>>> Tom
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>

Bruce Hagen · External Since: Apr 17, 2004 Posts: 12701

Download this tool and backup OE often including ****before**** you compact.
Anything goes wrong you can just restore the folders.

Try compacting each folder individually. If you get through that, a compact
all should work fine.

This freeware tool backs up everything in OE in seconds. Disregard what is
written in red. That is referring to a different program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx

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=903095

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#3

*Clean out your Inbox* & Sent Items*.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA

"Tom Brown" <NoSpam.RemoveThis@foo.net> wrote in message
news:eTdClzz$JHA.3432@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Bruce,
>
> I can't be certain which folders gave me the error message, but I do
> recall that one of them was a default folder (maybe Sent or Deleted
> Items?) and one of them was a folder I made (maybe Saved Sent 2006). I
> did always go to the top of the tree before starting a manual compaction
> operation but I don't think I remembered to go offline.
>
> But, since I wrote to you, we have discovered that we lost the contents of
> 21 custom folders when it hung and I had to crash it. I have subsequently
> restored them but to be honest, I am afraid to compact again. I'll try
> again next week as we are getting ready to head out of town and I don't
> need the aggravation right now.
>
> Right now, the largest .dbx folder in the directory is 1,041,099 KB and if
> my math is correct, that is about 127 MB (thank you Google). Most of the
> ones we lost were in the 2000 KB to 55,000 KB range. So, to make a long
> answer short, none of our folders is nearly as large as 300 MB.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom
>
>
> "Bruce Hagen" <Nospam.RemoveThis@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
> news:O4B8bzF$JHA.5780@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> Are you compacting in this manner?
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> Compact Your OE Folders:
>> http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact
>>
>> Did you determine which folders compacting hung on? What are the sizes of
>> your dbx files right now? (Just those over 300MB).
>> --
>>
>> Bruce Hagen
>> MS-MVP [Mail]
>> Imperial Beach, CA
>>
>>
>> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.RemoveThis@foo.net> wrote in message
>> news:eANpQwF$JHA.5780@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>> OK, thanks for the tips.
>>>
>>> Actually, I was able to recover most of the missing emails from my
>>> nightly backup from a few weeks ago. After I got them restored, I tried
>>> to do a manual "compact all folders" and I think I have discovered
>>> where one problem is.
>>>
>>> During the compaction, a couple of the folders give "bonk" and an error
>>> message saying "The folder is currently in use by Outlook Express or by
>>> another application." That required me to click on the box to clear
>>> that error and proceed with the compaction. What gives with that? They
>>> were not in use at all.
>>>
>>> Then, this brings me to the real culprit. After I had cleared a couple
>>> of those error messages, I noticed that it seemed to be taking a long
>>> time on one folder. So, I tried to move the mouse and I found that the
>>> whole machine was frozen. It stayed that way for a couple of hours and I
>>> could not get the Task Manager or anything. So, I was required to do a
>>> power-off crash to get the blasted thing running again. So, there is
>>> our problem .... I had to do a crash during compaction. I didn't see
>>> that I had any other choice.
>>>
>>> Any suggestions other than the ones you have already mentioned about
>>> keeping the folders small?
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Bruce Hagen" <Nospam.RemoveThis@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
>>> news:#qibZLc#JHA.3768@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>> IMHO, what you should do is create a 2009 Sent Items archive folder now
>>>> and once a day, drag all your Sent Items messages to it. Don't wait
>>>> until January, 2010.
>>>>
>>>> If you find a dbx file with the missing messages, you may be able to
>>>> move the messages in among the others. Post back if you find something
>>>> and we can discuss it at that time.
>>>>
>>>> You still have the option of DBXpress if these messages are that
>>>> important to you.
>>>>
>>>> DBXpress:
>>>> http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx
>>>>
>>>> You may need to run it in the Extract From Disk Mode if its normal
>>>> recovery mode fails to find the lost messages.
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> Bruce Hagen
>>>> MS-MVP [Mail]
>>>> Imperial Beach, CA
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.RemoveThis@foo.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:ekdajGc%23JHA.5092@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>>> Thanks Bruce and PA Bear,
>>>>>
>>>>> I tried all the monkeying around with the Sent Items.dbx and .bak
>>>>> files and Recycle Bin and those messages in that date range seem to be
>>>>> gone fair and square. So, now I am going through our nightly backups
>>>>> and restoring the Sent Items.dbx for each night. Each attempt takes
>>>>> about 15 minutes and so far I am only back to June 22 and have not
>>>>> located when they disappeared yet.
>>>>>
>>>>> But, let's assume I do find a Sent Items.dbx that has the messages
>>>>> included. Is there any way to APPEND/ADD the sent messages from that
>>>>> date to today after I restore the folder?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> Tom
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.RemoveThis@foo.net> wrote in message
>>>>> news:eOzE3Bb#JHA.3340@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>>>> Another strange one. My wife just discovered that all emails in the
>>>>>> Sent Items between Jan 1, 2009 and May 28, 2009 are missing and I
>>>>>> can't find them anywhere. What could cause this?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We routinely archive all Sent Items from previous years in customized
>>>>>> folders like Saved Sent 2007 or Saved Sent 2008, hence the Jan 1,
>>>>>> 2009 date being the first one in the current Sent Items. She is
>>>>>> running XP and IE 7.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Tom
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>

Ron Sommer · External Since: Jan 06, 2004 Posts: 1629

The math is not correct.
KB is kilobytes. kb is kilobits
Windows Explorer shows kilobytes.
1,041,099 KB is 1016.6982421875 MB is 1 GB.
300 MB is a good limit. 1016 MB is too high.
--
Ron Sommer

"Tom Brown" <NoSpam.DeleteThis@foo.net> wrote in message
news:eTdClzz$JHA.3432@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Bruce,
>
> I can't be certain which folders gave me the error message, but I do
> recall that one of them was a default folder (maybe Sent or Deleted
> Items?) and one of them was a folder I made (maybe Saved Sent 2006). I
> did always go to the top of the tree before starting a manual compaction
> operation but I don't think I remembered to go offline.
>
> But, since I wrote to you, we have discovered that we lost the contents of
> 21 custom folders when it hung and I had to crash it. I have subsequently
> restored them but to be honest, I am afraid to compact again. I'll try
> again next week as we are getting ready to head out of town and I don't
> need the aggravation right now.
>
> Right now, the largest .dbx folder in the directory is 1,041,099 KB and if
> my math is correct, that is about 127 MB (thank you Google). Most of the
> ones we lost were in the 2000 KB to 55,000 KB range. So, to make a long
> answer short, none of our folders is nearly as large as 300 MB.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom
>
>
> "Bruce Hagen" <Nospam.DeleteThis@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
> news:O4B8bzF$JHA.5780@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> Are you compacting in this manner?
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> Compact Your OE Folders:
>> http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact
>>
>> Did you determine which folders compacting hung on? What are the sizes of
>> your dbx files right now? (Just those over 300MB).
>> --
>>
>> Bruce Hagen
>> MS-MVP [Mail]
>> Imperial Beach, CA
>>
>>
>> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.DeleteThis@foo.net> wrote in message
>> news:eANpQwF$JHA.5780@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>> OK, thanks for the tips.
>>>
>>> Actually, I was able to recover most of the missing emails from my
>>> nightly backup from a few weeks ago. After I got them restored, I tried
>>> to do a manual "compact all folders" and I think I have discovered
>>> where one problem is.
>>>
>>> During the compaction, a couple of the folders give "bonk" and an error
>>> message saying "The folder is currently in use by Outlook Express or by
>>> another application." That required me to click on the box to clear
>>> that error and proceed with the compaction. What gives with that? They
>>> were not in use at all.
>>>
>>> Then, this brings me to the real culprit. After I had cleared a couple
>>> of those error messages, I noticed that it seemed to be taking a long
>>> time on one folder. So, I tried to move the mouse and I found that the
>>> whole machine was frozen. It stayed that way for a couple of hours and I
>>> could not get the Task Manager or anything. So, I was required to do a
>>> power-off crash to get the blasted thing running again. So, there is
>>> our problem .... I had to do a crash during compaction. I didn't see
>>> that I had any other choice.
>>>
>>> Any suggestions other than the ones you have already mentioned about
>>> keeping the folders small?
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Bruce Hagen" <Nospam.DeleteThis@mymail.invalid> wrote in message
>>> news:#qibZLc#JHA.3768@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>> IMHO, what you should do is create a 2009 Sent Items archive folder now
>>>> and once a day, drag all your Sent Items messages to it. Don't wait
>>>> until January, 2010.
>>>>
>>>> If you find a dbx file with the missing messages, you may be able to
>>>> move the messages in among the others. Post back if you find something
>>>> and we can discuss it at that time.
>>>>
>>>> You still have the option of DBXpress if these messages are that
>>>> important to you.
>>>>
>>>> DBXpress:
>>>> http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx
>>>>
>>>> You may need to run it in the Extract From Disk Mode if its normal
>>>> recovery mode fails to find the lost messages.
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> Bruce Hagen
>>>> MS-MVP [Mail]
>>>> Imperial Beach, CA
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.DeleteThis@foo.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:ekdajGc%23JHA.5092@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>>> Thanks Bruce and PA Bear,
>>>>>
>>>>> I tried all the monkeying around with the Sent Items.dbx and .bak
>>>>> files and Recycle Bin and those messages in that date range seem to be
>>>>> gone fair and square. So, now I am going through our nightly backups
>>>>> and restoring the Sent Items.dbx for each night. Each attempt takes
>>>>> about 15 minutes and so far I am only back to June 22 and have not
>>>>> located when they disappeared yet.
>>>>>
>>>>> But, let's assume I do find a Sent Items.dbx that has the messages
>>>>> included. Is there any way to APPEND/ADD the sent messages from that
>>>>> date to today after I restore the folder?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> Tom
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> "Tom Brown" <NoSpam.DeleteThis@foo.net> wrote in message
>>>>> news:eOzE3Bb#JHA.3340@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>>>> Another strange one. My wife just discovered that all emails in the
>>>>>> Sent Items between Jan 1, 2009 and May 28, 2009 are missing and I
>>>>>> can't find them anywhere. What could cause this?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We routinely archive all Sent Items from previous years in customized
>>>>>> folders like Saved Sent 2007 or Saved Sent 2008, hence the Jan 1,
>>>>>> 2009 date being the first one in the current Sent Items. She is
>>>>>> running XP and IE 7.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Tom
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>

PA Bear [MS MVP] · External Since: Jan 08, 2009 Posts: 228

What Ron said.

Tom Brown wrote:
<snippage>
> Right now, the largest .dbx folder in the directory is 1,041,099 KB and if
> my math is correct, that is about 127 MB (thank you Google). Most of the
> ones we lost were in the 2000 KB to 55,000 KB range. So, to make a long
> answer short, none of our folders is nearly as large as 300 MB.

Tom Brown · External Since: Jun 30, 2009 Posts: 5

Yep, I agree. I trusted Google to do the conversion but the next time I
tried it, I came up with the bigger number. I used "1,041,099KB in MB" in
Google and it gave me the correct answer. It's pretty particular about the
difference between "kb" and "KB."

Thanks guys,

Tom

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP.DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:eyxWlH1$JHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> What Ron said.
>
> Tom Brown wrote:
> <snippage>
>> Right now, the largest .dbx folder in the directory is 1,041,099 KB and
>> if
>> my math is correct, that is about 127 MB (thank you Google). Most of the
>> ones we lost were in the 2000 KB to 55,000 KB range. So, to make a long
>> answer short, none of our folders is nearly as large as 300 MB.
>

nino68 · External Since: Jul 22, 2009 Posts: 1

"Tom Brown" <NoSpam.RemoveThis@foo.net> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:u4MU8jOAKHA.4336@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Yep, I agree. I trusted Google to do the conversion but the next time I
> tried it, I came up with the bigger number. I used "1,041,099KB in MB" in
> Google and it gave me the correct answer. It's pretty particular about the
> difference between "kb" and "KB."
>
> Thanks guys,
>
> Tom
>
>
> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:eyxWlH1$JHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> What Ron said.
>>
>> Tom Brown wrote:
>> <snippage>
>>> Right now, the largest .dbx folder in the directory is 1,041,099 KB and
>>> if
>>> my math is correct, that is about 127 MB (thank you Google). Most of
>>> the
>>> ones we lost were in the 2000 KB to 55,000 KB range. So, to make a long
>>> answer short, none of our folders is nearly as large as 300 MB.
>>