Has this happened to anyone else?

[Myke Rocks]

Outlook express announced it wished to compact my messages.
It then deleted 99% of them.
On opening again, it is now redownloading them all from the internet server.
I found them all in by dustbin. Did a restore and they vanished.
Since I have - obviously backups via redownload it is not a problem, except
that I will have to re-file them to customers.
Myke

 

[Dansin]

It's a long time since I've used it - does the version you're using have a file size limit? That used to cause issues with outlook (2gb rings a distant bell).

 

[Myke Rocks]

It's a long time since I've used it - does the version you're using have a file size limit? That used to cause issues with outlook (2gb rings a distant bell).

It's dark ages, so almost certainly. Tell us more.
Myke

 

[uncle dick]

Top tip of the day: If OE says it wants to compact messages, it's ok to say 'yes' but don't turn off pc for ages, even if hdd light has stopped flashing. Give it at least 10 minutes or you could lose everything. Well documented online and DAMHIK !!

 

[Dansin]

Older versions of Outlook had a 2Gb limit on their local pst file. Once reached it was pretty much guaranteed to corrupt. When an email was deleted, it was just the reference that was deleted and the pst continued to grow with new email until it was compacted. Compacting took aeons and as uncle dick pointed out, was prone to users switching off before the process was completed resulting in the file corrupting. If you can export your recovered email then I'd suggest migrating to something up to date.

Caveat emptor - I've not been MCSE certified since about 2004 so am probably talking rubbish....

 

[Packer]

I switched to Mozilla Thunderbird some years ago as I was having problems with OE. Works well, some differences obviously but you soon get used to it.