Re: Outlook Express E-mails Deleted

From: Jim Pickering (jimp_at_mvps.invalid)
Date: 03/17/04 

Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 14:58:39 -0800

Use Windows Explorer to navigate to your message store folder (you can find
its location by clicking in OE on Tools/Options/Maintenance and then the
Store Folder button). Close OE when you use Explorer to navigate to the
folder and see if you have any dbx files with a number appended (i.e.,
Inbox(1).dbx, Inbox(2).dbx, etc.) If you do, these may contain the missing
messages. Copy any such dbx file to a new folder you create on your
Desktop, then download DBXtract to that same folder and run it to extract
the contents of a damaged DBX file. You can find DBXtract at www.oehelp.com
along with instructions on how to use it. Good luck. 

-- 
Jim Pickering, MVP-Outlook Express
Please reply only to newsgroup.
"Mendy" <mtd15@cox-internet.com> wrote in message 
news:105gtps8meu0v69@corp.supernews.com...
>I remember my computer stalling a few times and it saying 100% cpu usage.
> I'd have to use ctrl, alt delte to get rid of OE before my computer would
> start working again.
> Do you think this is what caused me to start seeing unread messages in my
> Inbox?
>
> I still have unread messages showing in my in box.  Several ppl have tried
> to help.  I've done different things and it works for a few hours or a 
> day.
> And the number just keeps going up when they start back showing unread and
> there is NO unread messages.  Only in my Inbox.  I have WinXP HE, OE 6.
>
> I did the steps to turn off background compacting.  Anyone have any clues 
> as
> what to do?  Thanks!!
> Mendy
> "Steve Cochran" <scochran@chattanooga.net> wrote in message
> news:eipgdxADEHA.1228@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> See #3 below and also #2.
>
> steve
>
> "Scott Williams" <buckeyescottw@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:baab01c40be5$a78341f0$a601280a@phx.gbl...
>> Wow. I fire up outlook express and it says I have 5 new e-
>> mails.  Great.  I select Inbox to see them.  They are all
>> instantly deleted.  This started about a week ago.  It
>> deleted all the e-mails that were in there from before.
>> I checked with my cable modem service provider and the
>> server is working fine, all settings correct.  Has anyone
>> ever seen this?  Could be virus, spyware, who knows.
>
>
>
> 1.  Don't open attachments.
>
> Most computer infections are the result of the user opening email
> attachments.  The attachment usually contains a virus or worm or trojan 
> that
> infects the system when it is opened.
>
> Because of this tendency of attachments to infect, Microsoft has now set 
> OE
> to block all attachments.  See
> these articles for explanations:
>
> Cannot Open E-Mail Attachments in Outlook Express After You Install SP1
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329570
>
> OLEXP Using Virus Protection Features in Outlook Express 6 (Q291387)
> http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q291/3/87.ASP
>
> Note that Microsoft does not send security patches in email.  See this
> article:
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/news/patch_hoax.asp
>
> If you choose to adjust OE to allow attachments, make sure you save the
> attachment to disk first and then scan it with your antivirus software.
>
> The most significant thing you can do to prevent such infections, is to
> educate yourself on what attachments may constitute a threat to your 
> system,
> and never open any such attachments, no matter who they are from.
>
>
>
> 2.  Turn off Background Compaction.
>
> When a message is deleted, moved or marked as read in an OE message file
> (dbx), then wasted space is generated in that file, and the folder must be
> compacted to remove that wasted space.
>
> By default, OE turns on a feature under Tools | Options | Maintenance 
> called
> "background compaction", which turns itself on if the folders in your
> message store get too much wasted space.  This feature uses 100% CPU time
> and slows down your system, while it is active.  In addition, if the 
> process
> is somewhat interrupted, then the entire message store can become corrupt.
>
> To prevent such corruption, turn off background compaction under Tools |
> Options | Maintenance for each Identity you have, and then compact 
> manually
> and frequently using File | Folder | Compact all.  This will make OE more
> stable.
>
>
> 3.  Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software.
>
>
> Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and 
> intercept
> (incoming and, in some cases, outgoing) messages that might contain virus.
>
> The problem with this approach is that the antivirus software can trigger
> the destruction of an entire message folder or the entire message store,
> when it attempts to remove a message containing a potential virus.
>
> To prevent the possibility of such destruction occuring, turn off email
> scanning in your antivirus software.  You will still be protected against
> infection.  If you attempt to open a message attachment containing a
> potential virus, then your antivirus software will recognize that your are
> attempting to infect your system, and will block you from doing so.  The
> best practice on the user's part is to save an attachment to disk and then
> scan it with the antivirus software prior to opening it.  Messages opened
> themselves (if you have the latest security updates from Windows Update)
> will not infect your system -- only attachments.
>
> You do not need additional email scanning on top of your system being
> continuosly scanned by antivirus software, so turn off email scanning to
> prevent destruction of your message store.
>
>
> 4.   Recovering lost messages.
>
>
> The most significant contributors to lost messages are described in points 
> 2
> and 3 above.  Turn these options off to prevent message store corruption.
>
> If you do lose your messages, you can try using my DBXtract program to
> attempt to recover the lost messages.  Note that dbx files are hidden in
> Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
> http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/
>
> Alternatively one can also use DBXpress, which is faster and more accurate
> than DBXtract,
> and it also has the capability of reading directly from the disk and
> bypassing the file system.
> http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/
>
> If you have upgraded your version of IE and OE or your OS version, and all
> your messages are lost, then see this article (note that the technique in
> the article does not only apply to the issue addressed in the article
> title):
>
> OLEXP: Mail Folders, Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After 
> You
> Upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313055
>
> If File | Import | Messages does not work, ignore the error message, which
> is erroneous in itself, and try one of the following techniques to get 
> your
> messages back:
> a.  Right click on each dbx file or a selection of them and go to 
> Properties
> and clear the read only attribute of the files.  Then try File | Import |
> Messages again.
> b.  Import the dbx files individually.  See the last paragraph on this 
> page
> for how to do that:
> http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
> c.  As a last resort use DBXtract or DBXpress
> http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/ or http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/
>
> See also:  http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone
>
>
> 5.  How does one reinstall IE and OE?
>
> This article seems to work for other OSs than just XP:
>
> How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q318378
>
> See point 11 below first.
>
>
> 6.  How does one backup and restore or transfer OE messages and settings:
>
> See:  http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm
>      http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
>
> Note that there is also a link in this article to MVP David Guess's free
> OEBackup programs (www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/)
>
>
>
> 7.  Links in email don't work:
>
> see the links on this page
>
> http://www.oehelp.com/
>
>
> 8.  Outlook Express is slow.
>
> See the various performance issues and how to address them on this page:
>
> http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm
>
>
> 9.  Outlook Express won't start.
>
> This is usually due to a conflict between what is recorded in the registry
> and what is in the message store.  Often, one can fix this problem by
> deleting folders.dbx.  If that doesn't work, then try moving all the dbx
> files to another directory and see if that fixes it.  Alternatively, see
> these articles and also point 4 above:
>
> http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm#nostart
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q245/4/19.asp
>
>
> 10.  Address book information:
>
> see The Windows Address Book
>
> http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm
>
>
> 11.  Installation issues:
>
> Most of the problems with a faulty installation are due to other programs
> running during the install and interfering with the updating of necessary
> files.  Antivirus software is notorious for this.  To minimize such
> interference, in Win98, WinMe, and WinXP go to Start | Run and type 
> msconfig
> and disable all startup items and non Microsoft services.  Then reboot.
> Then proceed with the installation.  Startup items can then be re-enabled.
>
> For additional info see:
>
> Win98:
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;281965&Product=w98
> WinXP:
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310560&Product=winxp
>
> Since Win2000 does not have msconfig, one has to manually go to this
> registry key:
>
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
>
> You can export this key and then delete all values under it.  Then disable
> all antivirus services under Computer Management | Services and then 
> reboot.
> Then install.  After the installation you can import the key back into the
> registry to restore the values and re-enable the services.
>
>
> 12.  Screening unwanted email and Spam
>
> Everybody gets unwanted email these days.  Much of this email is either
> trying to sell you something you probably don't want or else is trying to
> infect you with a virus via an email attachment.  What can you do?
>
> a.  Never open an attachment.  First save an attachment to disk and then
> scan it with your antivirus software to ensure it is not infected (make 
> sure
> your antivirus software definitions are up to date).  If the attachment is
> from someone you don't know, don't even bother opening it.  Its not worth
> it.  See also point 1 above.
>
> b.  Screen email.  Disable the Preview Pane (you can put a button on the
> toolbar to turn this on and off).  Then go to View | Columns and enable 
> most
> of the headers.  That way you can scan the headers and pick out the 
> various
> obvious unwanted mail.  Once you find messages that you don't want to 
> open,
> select the headers of those messages without opening the messages and
> perform a Shift-Delete to permanently remove them from the folder.  Once
> they are removed, they will no longer be accessible, so don't do this on
> messages you might wish to keep.
>
> c.  On messages left that might be worth opening, go to Tools | Options |
> Read and check the box that says "read all messages in plain text"
> (available only with IE6 SP1 or WinXP SP1 and higher).  Reading in plain
> text prevents any returns to the spammer's server, so your email address
> cannot be validated in that fashion.  In addition, it prevents malformed 
> or
> malicious HTML code from executing.  If you find the message is worth
> viewing as HTML, then you can go back to Tools | Options | Read and 
> uncheck
> the option to read in plain text only and then reopen the message to view 
> it
> as HTML (note that you can put this button on a toolbar with OETool
> (www.oehelp.com/OETool/).  You can also use OETool to view the message
> details without having to open the message.  You can also use the "Compact
> Current Folder" button after deleting to shrink the file size.
>
> d.  If you get unwanted email repeatedly from the same source, you can set
> up message rules to block out some of these messages.  See the help file 
> in
> OE and also
>
> http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/tips/rules.htm
>
> and
>
> http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/message_rules.htm.
>
>
> e.  If you find a message that is spam and that offends you or is 
> deceptive,
> go to Message | Forward as attachment and send it to uce@ftc.gov .
>
> The US Federal Trade Comission is launching a major crackdown on deceptive
> and offensive spam.  Visit their site at www.ftc.gov/spam for more info.
>
>
>
> I've left off some issues, but I believe these address the most
> common problems that users encounter with OE.  In addition, please check 
> the
> websites of the individual OE MVP's that address other issues not listed
> here:
>
>
> Tom Koch:
> http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/
>
> David Guess
> http://www.mindspring.com/~oe_oh/
>
> Jim Pickering
> http://home.comcast.net/~jimpickering/
>
> Frank Saunders
> http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/index.htm
>
> and my site at http://www.oehelp.com
>
>
> If you don't find your problem addressed, then feel free to post a 
> question
> in these newsgroups and we will be more than happy to respond and attempt 
> to
> help.  Just go to Tools | Accounts | Add | News and add 
> msnews.microsoft.com
> as a newsserver and then you can address your question to the appropriate
> newsgroup.
>
>
>