[JonBlow]

Hi, I'm running Outlook Express and recently a lot of my personal folders have just disappeared completely. Even more strange, only those that start with the letter H onwards.
After much fishing around I located the missing dbx files and they are ALL present in the identities/outlook folder. Then I bought ScanDbx, a program specifically designed to rescue/fix these files. It couldn't save them however and just flags them up as corrupt.
Does anybody know of a way of saving these dbx files? I have some important emails in them that weren't backed up.
Would there be another uncorupted copy of them somewhere else on the computer??
I'm sure I'm not the first to experience this am I?
Help...... !!

 

[ibrokeit]

Check this out, JB:

The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express

I hope it helps.

 

[JonBlow]

Thanks mate.
I suspected virus activity... looks like the case.
I'll check out the fix program.

 

[RubeB]

Hi, I'm running Outlook Express and recently a lot of my personal folders have just disappeared completely. Even more strange, only those that start with the letter H onwards.
After much fishing around I located the missing dbx files and they are ALL present in the identities/outlook folder. Then I bought ScanDbx, a program specifically designed to rescue/fix these files. It couldn't save them however and just flags them up as corrupt.
Does anybody know of a way of saving these dbx files? I have some important emails in them that weren't backed up.
Would there be another uncorupted copy of them somewhere else on the computer??
I'm sure I'm not the first to experience this am I?
Help...... !!

If I understand you correctly, some Outlook Express Folders no longer appear in your O.E. folder list, but you can see these dbx Folders in the location where they are stored.

Try this method to bring a missing folder back into O.E.

First of all, copy the dbx file somewhere else so you don't accidentally mess it up.

Create a new O.E. folder from within O.E. Say you call it, MyFolder

Put a token message into MyFolder while in O.E.

Exit O.E. (Don't skip this step)

Go to your dbx location and find MyFolder.dbx. Delete it.

Rename the missing .dbx folder to MyFolder.dbx

Restart O.E. You should see all the original material in MyFolder.

Rename MyFolder to your original name for the folder from within O.E.

 

[blah789]

Another tool you can attempt to use is DBXtract

 

[mommabear]

This is a good tool too. It's a standalone program and doesn't require installation.

Viewer for standalone files containing Microsoft Outlook Express 4,5 and 6 message database (*.idx/*.mbx/*.dbx) and standalone EML files. This application is based on MiTeC Outlook Express Reader. It displays list of contained messages and their header. Message can be viewed in detailed view including attachments (save ability) and HTML preview and printing. Messages can be saved to *.eml files.

http://www.mitec.cz/oeview.html

After your open it, go to the top where it says File, and choose Open. Browse to the folder where the .dbx files are. Select the .dbx file you want to see, ie Inbox.dbx, highlight it, select Open.

All the emails in the Inbox are now listed. Highlight the email you want, and then go to the top to Message Database, and select Message View. And there it is!

Or if you just want to save the complete folder first and then look at all of them, just highlight all the messages in the .dbx folder, go up to Message Database and choose "Save Selected" and save them to a folder of your choice, say in My Documents. If you need to put any of them back into your OE Inbox, Sent, a special folder...wherever...you can drag and drop them into OE again.

I tested it by saving one of the emails I brought up with this viewer to my documents. Then I was able to open it and read it while using this viewer.

 

[harold4777]

@RubeB ...I lost a important folder ,,, followed your instructions and restored the folder ,,,thanks !!