Outlook Express..folders in limbo

[Hilmay]

My daughter, in all her wisdom, had a cleanout of my genealogy folders in
Outlook Express and moved folders and their messages to MyDocuments/Attachments. I have tried to open them there and cannot read them, the are just gibberish. I have tried to import them back to Outlook Express and receive this message:
"The specified message could not be opened. It may be in use by Outlook Express" and upon clicking OK I get
"No message 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."
When I click properties on the different folders in MyDocuments some are 1.2mb, some 850kb, so the messages must be there, not just folders.
Can anyone help, This is driving me up the wall and I don't have far to go :-))
Jenny

[smurfy]

Welcome to CyberTechHelp Jenny.

As there are a couple of ways your daughter could have done this there are a couple of ways to fix it.

1) If she dragged & Dropped the Folder from Folder View Of Outlook Window to "My Doucuments" in Windows Explorer:
Try Dragging and dropping back, Click on the folder in Windows Explorer and drag to Outlook window all the way to INBOX on the folder list, The folder will become a sub-folder of the inbox.

2) If she did all the moving from within Windows Explorer/My Computer:
From Outlook, create NEW FOLDERS for each of the moved folders. Leave them empty.
Open Windows Explorer.
Find the new Folders - should be in C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{long identity code number}\Microsoft\Outlook Express or C:\Windows\Profiles\Application Data\Identites\{long coded number}\Microsoft\Outlook Express
(look here (http://www.suggestafix.com/ubb/Forum16/HTML/000030.html) for more info on where Outlook stores mail folders)
Now drag and drop the OLD folders from "My Documents" to the location of the new folders and click YES when prompted to overwrite existing folders.

If neitehr of these methods do the trick, I'll need to know a bit more about the properties of the "folders" in My Documents.
Do they show any extension (e.g. History.dbx)?


------------------
Smurfy
Suggest A Fix (http://www.suggestafix.com) & CyberTech Help (http://www.cybertechhelp.com) moderator.
smurfynz@netscape.net

[smurfy]

By email
Hi Smurfy
Thanks for your message, I'm more confused than ever! I tried
1) Dragging folders back to OE with no luck so to
2) and I went to C:\Windows\Application Data\Identities\{long
code}\Microsoft\Outlook Express, there was nothing there, I created a
folder, called it Craig and dragged the old Craig file to it. When I tried
to open it, I was taken to OE but nothing in the Craig folder. On clicking
properties it says it is a .DBX file of 246kb. There or 30 folders in
MyDocs\attachments all behaving the same way.
At times I have such a love\hate relationship with this computer :-))
Thanks
Jenny

[smurfy]

Ok jenny, I prefer to keep the replies confined to the forum so others can see wht we are up to and add their 2c worth to assist.

Since the folders are still in *.dbx form, you should be able to import them back into Outlook Express.

Can you confirm you followed the following steps to attempt to import them:
File > Import > Messages
Select Microsoft Outlook Express 5 from the list > Next
Select "Import mail from an OE5 store directory > OK
Click Browse and navigate to C:\my documents

[Hilmay]

Hi Smurfy
Yes I have followed that procedure to import back to Outlook Express. That is when the messages mentioned come up telling me there are no messages in the folders and that they cannot be opened. If I go into Explorer without opening OE, find the folders in MyDocuments and click on one it will open OE up but no messages come up.
Thanks for your patience on this one.
Cheers
Jenny

[smurfy]

OK Jenny, I have done some mucking around with my OE5.5 (this should work in OE5.0 or 5.01 as well).
Here are the assumptions I am making:
There is only one Desktop profile on your PC (you don't use windows logins)
The folders in "My Documents" are as you mentioned above - eg "Craig.dbx"

If you only have one Identity set up in Outlook Express OR If all Identities are configured to store messages in the same location (Tools/Options/Maintenance/Store Folder) If you have multiple identities, the message store will be in the path I mentioned a couple of posts ago.

i) Open Outlook Express, In Folder View DELETE all the empty folders, including from deleted items folder.
ii) Close Outlook Express.
iii) Open Windows Explorer, find C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express
You should see your inbox.dbx, sent items.dbx etc in that folder. If any of the other folders are still there (the empty ones), delete them now. Close Explorer.
iv) Open Outlook Express. Go File>New>Folder.
Make a new Folder called "Craig".
It will be empty, leave it empty.
v) Close Outlook Express.
vi) Open WindowsExplorer again and browse to the C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express folder. See if there is a "Craig.dbx" folder there.
vii) If there is, browse to My documents, right click on "craig.dbx there and COPY.
viii) Browse back to the outlook folder and right click and PASTE. You will be prompted "Do you want to over-write the new Craig.dbx file with the old craig.dbx file", say YES. Close Windows Explorer
ix) Open Outlook Express and see if the messages are back in place.

If this does not work, let me know exactly which step did not work the way it should have.


[This message has been edited by smurfy (edited 30 November 2000).]

[Hilmay]

Hi Smurfy
Well it worked!! All the messages have been restored I don't know how to thank you, your bloods worth bottling as they say here in Australia!!
But now for the bad news! When I go to a message in digest form with attachments, before I used to click on the paper clip and it would show the messages and ask if I wanted to save to disk or open it. Now when I click on open it.........nothing happens, I can't read the message. Can you help with that too.
Thanks again now I have to restore 40 odd folders.
Jenny

[smurfy]

Jenny. I'm not really sure what you mean by "digest form".
Is this the preview pane in OExpress or have you actually opened the message in it's own window?

[Hilmay]

Hi Smurf
Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier, my computer's motherboard died and it has been in the shop getting another. When I got it back I reinstalled Outlook Express and all is fine, can open and read all the messages and folders are back where they belong. Well, that is except for the scanner which has decided it doesn't like the new addition and keeps asking for the fax which I don't have. Uninstall didn't fix it.
They are such fun these monsters!
Thanks for your help with OE I do appreciate it.
Jenny