OE6 won't ready dbx files -- the full story

Here's the complete story:

1.SOFTWARE -- OE6 on Win2k Pro
2. I went offline in OE, began compacting all folders
3. Got notified there wasn't enough disk space. Stopped the Compacting
operation.
4. Made a new directory on another hard drive.
5. Closed OE6.
6. Moved [select all, Shift Drag] all emails from my store directory to
there. I regret moving instead of copying now!
7. Went for a coffee.
8. Came back, ALL files gone, both from old store directory, and new
directory.
9. Used System Mechanic to undelete old store directory. All files
reappeared.
10. But OE6 couldn't see them.
11. Went home, came back next day.
12. Copied all to a second new directory. Tried importing them. Got this
long message (2 different ones actually) about there being no files or may be
in use by Outlook Express.
11. I've tried importing into Thunderbird, Outlook . . . nothing works.
On the hard drive in Win Exp they're all there, 1400 of them, totalling
about 1.6 gig.

There are many folders inside folders, as I filed each client as a sub
folder, then filed all his jobs inside. They all go back to 1999 and include
all correspondence, quotes you name.

Did I back up? Yep. my nightly backup copied all the bad files OVER the good
ones!

I can provide a small dbx file for you to see.

Cheers

John

Did you tell OE you moved the files to that folder? It won't recognize them
justin any folder or drive unless it knows where they're at from the Store
Root value.

Did you use OE to move the files? Make a new folder, then Tools | Options |
Maintenance tab | Store Folders button.

When you tried importing, was there a Folders.dbx file present in the
folder? This is required for OE to recognize the folders. Also, were they
perhaps set to Read Only? OE won't recognize them.




"Johnwey" <Johnwey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FBAA8938-D563-4814-A2C6-3D3968F073F5@microsoft.com...
> Here's the complete story:
>
> 1.SOFTWARE -- OE6 on Win2k Pro
> 2. I went offline in OE, began compacting all folders
> 3. Got notified there wasn't enough disk space. Stopped the Compacting
> operation.
> 4. Made a new directory on another hard drive.
> 5. Closed OE6.
> 6. Moved [select all, Shift Drag] all emails from my store directory to
> there. I regret moving instead of copying now!
> 7. Went for a coffee.
> 8. Came back, ALL files gone, both from old store directory, and new
> directory.
> 9. Used System Mechanic to undelete old store directory. All files
> reappeared.
> 10. But OE6 couldn't see them.
> 11. Went home, came back next day.
> 12. Copied all to a second new directory. Tried importing them. Got this
> long message (2 different ones actually) about there being no files or may
> be
> in use by Outlook Express.
> 11. I've tried importing into Thunderbird, Outlook . . . nothing works.
> On the hard drive in Win Exp they're all there, 1400 of them, totalling
> about 1.6 gig.
>
> There are many folders inside folders, as I filed each client as a sub
> folder, then filed all his jobs inside. They all go back to 1999 and
> include
> all correspondence, quotes you name.
>
> Did I back up? Yep. my nightly backup copied all the bad files OVER the
> good
> ones!
>
> I can provide a small dbx file for you to see.
>
> Cheers
>
> John

I should have clarified further: I have tried DBXtract, R-Mail, ABC Amber DBX
Converter, FMorph, Easy Outlook Express Repair, OE-Mail Recovery and another
one I forget -- all to no avail.

John

"Johnwey" wrote:

> Here's the complete story:
>
> 1.SOFTWARE -- OE6 on Win2k Pro
> 2. I went offline in OE, began compacting all folders
> 3. Got notified there wasn't enough disk space. Stopped the Compacting
> operation.
> 4. Made a new directory on another hard drive.
> 5. Closed OE6.
> 6. Moved [select all, Shift Drag] all emails from my store directory to
> there. I regret moving instead of copying now!
> 7. Went for a coffee.
> 8. Came back, ALL files gone, both from old store directory, and new
> directory.
> 9. Used System Mechanic to undelete old store directory. All files
> reappeared.
> 10. But OE6 couldn't see them.
> 11. Went home, came back next day.
> 12. Copied all to a second new directory. Tried importing them. Got this
> long message (2 different ones actually) about there being no files or may be
> in use by Outlook Express.
> 11. I've tried importing into Thunderbird, Outlook . . . nothing works.
> On the hard drive in Win Exp they're all there, 1400 of them, totalling
> about 1.6 gig.
>
> There are many folders inside folders, as I filed each client as a sub
> folder, then filed all his jobs inside. They all go back to 1999 and include
> all correspondence, quotes you name.
>
> Did I back up? Yep. my nightly backup copied all the bad files OVER the good
> ones!
>
> I can provide a small dbx file for you to see.
>
> Cheers
>
> John

"Johnwey" <Johnwey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BBBA94C6-76E5-43AC-B534-D356FE4DBCC9@microsoft.com...
>I should have clarified further: I have tried DBXtract, R-Mail, ABC Amber
>DBX
> Converter, FMorph, Easy Outlook Express Repair, OE-Mail Recovery and
> another
> one I forget -- all to no avail.
>


Then the possibility exists that the recovery program didn't really recover
all of the files.

"DGuess" wrote:

> Did you tell OE you moved the files to that folder? It won't recognize them
> justin any folder or drive unless it knows where they're at from the Store
> Root value.

I changed the Store folder to the new location.

> Did you use OE to move the files? Make a new folder, then Tools | Options |
> Maintenance tab | Store Folders button.

Second time round I did. First time (when they all disappeared, was when I
moved them in Win Explorer

> When you tried importing, was there a Folders.dbx file present in the
> folder? This is required for OE to recognize the folders. Also, were they
> perhaps set to Read Only? OE won't recognize them.

Did the rename-to Folders.OLD-shutdown-and-open-with-a-new-Folders.dbx . . .
didn't help.
All files are readable -- I checked, but no CD was involved anyway.

Want me to put one of the dbx files on a web link so you can take a look?

John

> "Johnwey" <Johnwey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:FBAA8938-D563-4814-A2C6-3D3968F073F5@microsoft.com...
> > Here's the complete story:
> >
> > 1.SOFTWARE -- OE6 on Win2k Pro
> > 2. I went offline in OE, began compacting all folders
> > 3. Got notified there wasn't enough disk space. Stopped the Compacting
> > operation.
> > 4. Made a new directory on another hard drive.
> > 5. Closed OE6.
> > 6. Moved [select all, Shift Drag] all emails from my store directory to
> > there. I regret moving instead of copying now!
> > 7. Went for a coffee.
> > 8. Came back, ALL files gone, both from old store directory, and new
> > directory.
> > 9. Used System Mechanic to undelete old store directory. All files
> > reappeared.
> > 10. But OE6 couldn't see them.
> > 11. Went home, came back next day.
> > 12. Copied all to a second new directory. Tried importing them. Got this
> > long message (2 different ones actually) about there being no files or may
> > be
> > in use by Outlook Express.
> > 11. I've tried importing into Thunderbird, Outlook . . . nothing works.
> > On the hard drive in Win Exp they're all there, 1400 of them, totalling
> > about 1.6 gig.
> >
> > There are many folders inside folders, as I filed each client as a sub
> > folder, then filed all his jobs inside. They all go back to 1999 and
> > include
> > all correspondence, quotes you name.
> >
> > Did I back up? Yep. my nightly backup copied all the bad files OVER the
> > good
> > ones!
> >
> > I can provide a small dbx file for you to see.
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > John
>
>
>
>

"Johnwey" <Johnwey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:398C8641-C08E-4912-9FD6-C53F19F25F85@microsoft.com...
>
>
> "DGuess" wrote:
>
>> Did you tell OE you moved the files to that folder? It won't recognize
>> them
>> justin any folder or drive unless it knows where they're at from the
>> Store
>> Root value.
>
> I changed the Store folder to the new location.
>
>> Did you use OE to move the files? Make a new folder, then Tools | Options
>> |
>> Maintenance tab | Store Folders button.
>
> Second time round I did. First time (when they all disappeared, was when I
> moved them in Win Explorer
>
>> When you tried importing, was there a Folders.dbx file present in the
>> folder? This is required for OE to recognize the folders. Also, were they
>> perhaps set to Read Only? OE won't recognize them.
>
> Did the rename-to Folders.OLD-shutdown-and-open-with-a-new-Folders.dbx . .
> .
> didn't help.
> All files are readable -- I checked, but no CD was involved anyway.
>
> Want me to put one of the dbx files on a web link so you can take a look?
>


That won't be needed.

As I mentiuoned in a reply to your other post, the file recovery program may
not have fully recovered the files. It will show as successful but in
reality, it's not. It will pick up what is on the hard drive and that could
be any old file remnants as well. It's not uncommon as I see it quite often
on recovery of disks and drives.

DBXPress is about the only tool I know of that can read the drive for the
messages. It may not pick up all but it's done pretty good as I've used it
during the testing process as well as on the wife's computer. The problem
lies within the fact that Windows will overwrite what becomes free space and
here is where you can lose the bits and pieces of messages. In the case of
my wife's computer, I don't think we lost a single one because when the
compact finished and showed no messages, I powered down the computer so
nothing else could write to the drive. It's not a process I recommed doing
but it did manage to save the message stores. From there, I attached the
drive to another computer but unfortunatley with not enough disk space so I
used a network drive instead and it copied to them another computer.

On a backup, you need to start doing at least a three tier backup. Backup1,
Backup2, Backup3. Backup4 would overwrite Backup1, Backup5 would overwrite
backup2, etc. A single backup is not recommended.

What you might be able to do is copy the last backup to a hard drive, then
use DBXpress on that drive to recover the messages to a different drive.That
way you can at the least recover some of the messages if not all.

"Johnwey" <Johnwey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FBAA8938-D563-4814-A2C6-3D3968F073F5@microsoft.com...
> Here's the complete story:
>
> 1.SOFTWARE -- OE6 on Win2k Pro
> 2. I went offline in OE, began compacting all folders
> 3. Got notified there wasn't enough disk space. Stopped the Compacting
> operation.
> 4. Made a new directory on another hard drive.
> 5. Closed OE6.
> 6. Moved [select all, Shift Drag] all emails from my store directory to
> there. I regret moving instead of copying now!

Do you have disk recovery tools? Try and recover them. It depend where they
were on your disk and how much has been written since. But worth trying.

All deletion does is change the first letter to a sigma making the space
available for use- it doesnt actually delete your data. Overwriting the
space is where you'd lose it.

inline.................
"Johnwey" <Johnwey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:398C8641-C08E-4912-9FD6-C53F19F25F85@microsoft.com...
>
>
> "DGuess" wrote:
>
>> Did you tell OE you moved the files to that folder? It won't recognize
>> them
>> justin any folder or drive unless it knows where they're at from the
>> Store
>> Root value.
>
> I changed the Store folder to the new location.
>
>> Did you use OE to move the files? Make a new folder, then Tools | Options
>> |
>> Maintenance tab | Store Folders button.
>
> Second time round I did. First time (when they all disappeared, was when I
> moved them in Win Explorer
>
>> When you tried importing, was there a Folders.dbx file present in the
>> folder? This is required for OE to recognize the folders. Also, were they
>> perhaps set to Read Only? OE won't recognize them.
>
> Did the rename-to Folders.OLD-shutdown-and-open-with-a-new-Folders.dbx . .
> .
> didn't help.
> All files are readable -- I checked, but no CD was involved anyway.

'All files are readable' doesn't answer the question.
Are the files marked 'Read Only'?

What do you mean by 'another drive'?
Is it another drive on the same computer?

Create a new folder and call it archive.
Move one message into archive.
Close OE.
Copy one of the old folders.
Rename the copy to archive.dbx.
Make sure archive.dbx is not Read Only.
Replace archive.dbx in your store folder with the other archive dbx.
Reopen OE.
What is in the archive folder?
--
Ron Sommer

>
> Want me to put one of the dbx files on a web link so you can take a look?
>
> John
>
>> "Johnwey" <Johnwey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:FBAA8938-D563-4814-A2C6-3D3968F073F5@microsoft.com...
>> > Here's the complete story:
>> >
>> > 1.SOFTWARE -- OE6 on Win2k Pro
>> > 2. I went offline in OE, began compacting all folders
>> > 3. Got notified there wasn't enough disk space. Stopped the Compacting
>> > operation.
>> > 4. Made a new directory on another hard drive.
>> > 5. Closed OE6.
>> > 6. Moved [select all, Shift Drag] all emails from my store directory to
>> > there. I regret moving instead of copying now!
>> > 7. Went for a coffee.
>> > 8. Came back, ALL files gone, both from old store directory, and new
>> > directory.
>> > 9. Used System Mechanic to undelete old store directory. All files
>> > reappeared.
>> > 10. But OE6 couldn't see them.
>> > 11. Went home, came back next day.
>> > 12. Copied all to a second new directory. Tried importing them. Got
>> > this
>> > long message (2 different ones actually) about there being no files or
>> > may
>> > be
>> > in use by Outlook Express.
>> > 11. I've tried importing into Thunderbird, Outlook . . . nothing works.
>> > On the hard drive in Win Exp they're all there, 1400 of them, totalling
>> > about 1.6 gig.
>> >
>> > There are many folders inside folders, as I filed each client as a sub
>> > folder, then filed all his jobs inside. They all go back to 1999 and
>> > include
>> > all correspondence, quotes you name.
>> >
>> > Did I back up? Yep. my nightly backup copied all the bad files OVER the
>> > good
>> > ones!
>> >
>> > I can provide a small dbx file for you to see.
>> >
>> > Cheers
>> >
>> > John
>>
>>
>>
>>

See point 9 above (first post) They're all there . . . all 1,6 Gb of them.
They just won't give up their contents to either OE or any of 9 recovery
programs I tried.

"Alan" wrote:

>
> "Johnwey" <Johnwey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:FBAA8938-D563-4814-A2C6-3D3968F073F5@microsoft.com...
> > Here's the complete story:
> >
> > 1.SOFTWARE -- OE6 on Win2k Pro
> > 2. I went offline in OE, began compacting all folders
> > 3. Got notified there wasn't enough disk space. Stopped the Compacting
> > operation.
> > 4. Made a new directory on another hard drive.
> > 5. Closed OE6.
> > 6. Moved [select all, Shift Drag] all emails from my store directory to
> > there. I regret moving instead of copying now!
>
> Do you have disk recovery tools? Try and recover them. It depend where they
> were on your disk and how much has been written since. But worth trying.
>
> All deletion does is change the first letter to a sigma making the space
> available for use- it doesnt actually delete your data. Overwriting the
> space is where you'd lose it.
>
>
>

"Johnwey" <Johnwey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7585FEDB-58B9-45A9-A143-84DD11DB5D8D@microsoft.com
> See point 9 above (first post) They're all there . . . all 1,6 Gb of
> them. They just won't give up their contents to either OE or any of 9
> recovery programs I tried.

Was DBXpress one of the tools you tried? If so and it didn't work all you
can do is open copies them with a plain text editor and try to pick out the
pieces of the messages. (Any message ofer 512 bytes will be in pieces.)

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/sec...t/default.aspx
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