Help Outlook Express 6.0

[justanuthrnewby]

Help!~ Can someone please tell me how to retrieve archived email messages in Outlook Express 6.0? I've looked every where, Microsoft, Knowledge Base, ....but to no avail!

[Miz]

How exactly were the messages archived? Outlook Express, unlike Outlook, doesn't have an Archive feature.

Are these email messages that have been backed up to CD, some other type of removable media or another harddrive? If so and if they're .dbx files, have you tried importing them (Outlook Express>File>Import>Messages) back into Outlook Express?

[justanuthrnewby]

Boy what a nightmare! Outlook Expess 6.0 asks me if I want to "compact messages" when ever I close out of Express. I have tried importing them (Outlook Express>File>Import>Messges)but it says "The specified message store could not be opened. It may be in use by Outlook Express". Then the following message appears....No messages can be found in this folder or another application is running that has the required files open. Please select another folder or try closing applications that may have files open. ??????

Now what? Could I have a virus? I've scanned my computer with Norton, and Trend and neither one of them found any thing??? HMMMMMM.........

[SimpleSecurity]

Outlook Express compacts messages to make the database smaller by making the storage more efficient. This isn't archiving, the messages should all still be there.

Have you moved the message store? Check in Tools>Options>Maintenance > Store Folder. Also, if you've moved the store via a CDRom, the files may still be read only, change the attributes for all of them using Windows Explorer.

[dtiernan]

I recommend to you as I do everyone. Never use Outlook Express. Thunderbird is free and available from the folks at Mozilla. (I know this does not directly answer your question). I have spent hours myself on such pursuits.

The suggestions from simple security sound good, in future. Thunderbird, and you may in fact get your messages back by importing to Tbird from OE.