Lost Messages in OE6 on Win XP
in [Outlook Express]
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From: Guy Scharf on 5 Jul 2008 17:54 I was just called in to help with a problem with lost messages in Outlook Express 6 folders. When I look at the DBX files for folders that the user says are supposed to have messages, I see that the DBX file is fairly large (500KB or so which might correspond to its "real" size with messages) but that the contents of the file is almost all zeros. DBX recovery programs report there are no messages to be recovered. There are also sections of the Deleted items folder (from June 5-25 approximately) where the subject name is shown for messages but selecting the message results in a "message unavailable while offline" message (POP3 protocol is used). Recovery programs simply skip those messages. The Sent folder contains 7736 messages and the Deleted Items folder has about 5800 messages. All other folders, including the apparently wiped ones, are much smaller. Client unfortunately was not maintaining rolling backups so has only a current backup, and data on that backup is also damaged. Hard drive diagnostics, scandisk, and anti-virus showed no problems (though they hadn't run a full scan since 4/10). Can anyone suggest what happened? Any magic cures are also welcome! :-) Thanks. Guy
From: Peter Foldes on 5 Jul 2008 18:11 Did he compact?? Checked the recycle Bin for *.bak files ? -- Peter Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged. "Guy Scharf" <guy(a)spamcop.net> wrote in message news:Xns9AD2978C4ED77guyspamcopnet(a)216.196.97.142... >I was just called in to help with a problem with lost messages in > Outlook Express 6 folders. > > When I look at the DBX files for folders that the user says are > supposed to have messages, I see that the DBX file is fairly large > (500KB or so which might correspond to its "real" size with messages) > but that the contents of the file is almost all zeros. DBX recovery > programs report there are no messages to be recovered. > > There are also sections of the Deleted items folder (from June 5-25 > approximately) where the subject name is shown for messages but > selecting the message results in a "message unavailable while offline" > message (POP3 protocol is used). Recovery programs simply skip those > messages. > > The Sent folder contains 7736 messages and the Deleted Items folder has > about 5800 messages. All other folders, including the apparently wiped > ones, are much smaller. > > Client unfortunately was not maintaining rolling backups so has only a > current backup, and data on that backup is also damaged. > > Hard drive diagnostics, scandisk, and anti-virus showed no problems > (though they hadn't run a full scan since 4/10). > > Can anyone suggest what happened? Any magic cures are also welcome! > :-) > > Thanks. > > Guy
From: Guy Scharf on 5 Jul 2008 20:43 "Peter Foldes" <okf22(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > Did he compact?? Checked the recycle Bin for *.bak files ? Maybe. There are lots of .BAK files in the recycle bin, with names like DC3562.BAK. When I look at them with a hex editor, they look like DBX files. And the dates on those files match are in the range of times that she reported that she saw messages missing (a whole month ago--nothing like calling for help in a timely fashion ;-)). Now I'm looking at the contents of RECYCLER directory in an Acronis True Image backup of the C: drive, not directly into the Recycle Bin from the desktop. I made that backup upon receipt of the computer. The Recycle Bin on the current version of the drive doesn't have an ..BAK files. Probably other changes I made to the computer flushed out anything in the recycle bin before. How can I restore these as DBX files to OE6, given that I can't work through the recycle bin directly? Guy
From: Guy Scharf on 5 Jul 2008 22:52 "Peter Foldes" <okf22(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > Did he compact?? Checked the recycle Bin for *.bak files ? I've looked at INFO2 and confirmed that the files are mailbox files. I can rename the .BAK files to the proper .DBX name easily enough, then copy them to the OE store folder. I'll use slightly modified names so they don't overwrite the most recent DBX files. Will that be enough?
From: Ron Sommer on 6 Jul 2008 07:56
Shouldn't that be 500MB? Your post is 2KB, so 500KB would only be 250 messages. How do you know that a dbx file is almost all zeros? What program are you using to view the dbx file? -- Ronald Sommer "Guy Scharf" <guy(a)spamcop.net> wrote in message news:Xns9AD2978C4ED77guyspamcopnet(a)216.196.97.142... > I was just called in to help with a problem with lost messages in > Outlook Express 6 folders. > > When I look at the DBX files for folders that the user says are > supposed to have messages, I see that the DBX file is fairly large > (500KB or so which might correspond to its "real" size with messages) > but that the contents of the file is almost all zeros. DBX recovery > programs report there are no messages to be recovered. > > There are also sections of the Deleted items folder (from June 5-25 > approximately) where the subject name is shown for messages but > selecting the message results in a "message unavailable while offline" > message (POP3 protocol is used). Recovery programs simply skip those > messages. > > The Sent folder contains 7736 messages and the Deleted Items folder has > about 5800 messages. All other folders, including the apparently wiped > ones, are much smaller. > > Client unfortunately was not maintaining rolling backups so has only a > current backup, and data on that backup is also damaged. > > Hard drive diagnostics, scandisk, and anti-virus showed no problems > (though they hadn't run a full scan since 4/10). > > Can anyone suggest what happened? Any magic cures are also welcome! > :-) > > Thanks. > > Guy |