dbx files

Chas9 · 03-08-2008, 12:57 PM

My wife uses Windows 2000 Pro, I use Windows XP Pro. Two days ago, at the morning boot she said come look at this, a windows file reports as corrupted, windows will need to be repaired, the suggestion was to "repair" the installation using the setup CD, I tried that but kept asking for a restore floppy disk did not have one. She is very active in a large Family History Society so I did not want to re-install windows including a fresh format because she would have lost hundreds of bytes of saved info, yes I know we should have backed up all her stuff, did some but not all. So I re-installed windows but choose install over the old system and changed the windows folder from WNNT TO WNNT2. This went fine everything worked, we updated SP to #4, along with IE6 and some 60 or more security fixes, setup e-mail, the web(cable), re-installed Office 2003, etc. (note: I re-naimned the old WNNT to "this is the old wnnt" so the system would not even consider look at that folder.

Previous is how I got to here. Oulook Express does not report the hudreds of saved e-mail messages that she kept within "local folders" because of the necessity of saving these saved e-mails I had saved the dbx files reported in documents and settings under the administrators name, about 3 months before, so I checked the "indentities" folder and to my surprise they were all still there in the Outlook Express folder below "indentities". Now I don't need the saved ones. How to I tell the system to read them with this new install. Undoubtedly the system registry must be changed so that the administrator logon will recognise these e-mail messages.
Sorry this is so long but wanted the reader to know what I have done. To see the dbx files the user must change folder view options to "show hidden files and folder" and remove the check mark "hide protected operating system file(Recommended)", after the dbx's were copied and save I put the view changes back as they were.

ForumKB · 03-13-2008, 02:54 AM

This should just be a case of shutting outlook down and copying the database files to the current identities folder over the top of the ones that are there. You can find the ID for the current identity somewhere in outlook express but i can remeber where of the top of my head.

Chas9 · 03-13-2008, 10:38 AM

Thanks for your reply. Unfortionately all of the dbx files are there with the correct sizes in bytes, overwriting with the saved dbx files did not work. OE still does not recognize these saved e-mails which were recognized before the re-install over write with the install CD. It appears to me that a registry change will be necessary to let the new administrator (even with the same name as before) to see these files. The old administrator profile cannot be found in the control panel "administrator tools" section, so that does not appear to be the answer.

03-08-2008, 12:57 PM	#1 (permalink)
Chas9 Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 37 OS: windows xp pro	dbx files My wife uses Windows 2000 Pro, I use Windows XP Pro. Two days ago, at the morning boot she said come look at this, a windows file reports as corrupted, windows will need to be repaired, the suggestion was to "repair" the installation using the setup CD, I tried that but kept asking for a restore floppy disk did not have one. She is very active in a large Family History Society so I did not want to re-install windows including a fresh format because she would have lost hundreds of bytes of saved info, yes I know we should have backed up all her stuff, did some but not all. So I re-installed windows but choose install over the old system and changed the windows folder from WNNT TO WNNT2. This went fine everything worked, we updated SP to #4, along with IE6 and some 60 or more security fixes, setup e-mail, the web(cable), re-installed Office 2003, etc. (note: I re-naimned the old WNNT to "this is the old wnnt" so the system would not even consider look at that folder. Previous is how I got to here. Oulook Express does not report the hudreds of saved e-mail messages that she kept within "local folders" because of the necessity of saving these saved e-mails I had saved the dbx files reported in documents and settings under the administrators name, about 3 months before, so I checked the "indentities" folder and to my surprise they were all still there in the Outlook Express folder below "indentities". Now I don't need the saved ones. How to I tell the system to read them with this new install. Undoubtedly the system registry must be changed so that the administrator logon will recognise these e-mail messages. Sorry this is so long but wanted the reader to know what I have done. To see the dbx files the user must change folder view options to "show hidden files and folder" and remove the check mark "hide protected operating system file(Recommended)", after the dbx's were copied and save I put the view changes back as they were. Last edited by Chas9 : 03-08-2008 at 01:08 PM.

03-13-2008, 02:54 AM	#2 (permalink)
ForumKB Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: UK Posts: 61 OS: XP	Re: dbx files This should just be a case of shutting outlook down and copying the database files to the current identities folder over the top of the ones that are there. You can find the ID for the current identity somewhere in outlook express but i can remeber where of the top of my head. __________________ Adrian Paris Google search of just tech forums & articles (very useful, honest!)

03-13-2008, 10:38 AM	#3 (permalink)
Chas9 Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 37 OS: windows xp pro	Re: dbx files Thanks for your reply. Unfortionately all of the dbx files are there with the correct sizes in bytes, overwriting with the saved dbx files did not work. OE still does not recognize these saved e-mails which were recognized before the re-install over write with the install CD. It appears to me that a registry change will be necessary to let the new administrator (even with the same name as before) to see these files. The old administrator profile cannot be found in the control panel "administrator tools" section, so that does not appear to be the answer.