Outlook express compacting files wiped everything

I was compacting my OE messages when halfway through, my pc just rebooted itself and then on start up I received a critical error message. I reported it to MS but got the message that it was an unknown issue

When I opened up OE, however, everything was gone - all of my subfolders and emails. I did do a back up about 2 weeks ago, saved on my C drive but that's wiped too! It doesn't exist anywhere that I can find it on my pc.

I have tried system restore but that didn't help.
I would really appreciate any suggestions to help me get this back, or is it lost forever??
Thanks!
oh, I run XP SP2

 

Hope this helps.

I've just done a Google link using "outlook Express gone" as exact phrase.

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=20&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=outlook+express+gone&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=lang_en&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

You might try other options, including "OE gone", "OE gone XP", etc.

Still its' a starting point. Best of luck. Keep us informed. Bazza

 

Thanks Bazza. I have been looking online, but so far have only found people asking the same question with no answers I will keep looking.
I also did a double check with AVG and adaware etc but found nothing nasty in my computer.

 

http://www.oemailrecovery.com/ try that
or try importing mail from the .dbx files.
look in documents and setting\username\local settings\application data\identities\{xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxx-xxxx}

 

I have rceomended it to many people and they had good results with it so far,I have never used it.I always use the .dbx files method,if the .dbx is not there maybe you can use a free undelete program and that might do the same thing as this.It may or may not be worth buying it,depends on how important your mails are and you should try all other free resources first.

 

free I beleive OutLookExpressExtraction.zip http://macallan.club.fr/index.htm
cheaper http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/

 

Thank you!

I have found my dbx files - do I now just import them in from my OE? I have tried that but it keeps telling me that the import files are currently being used by OE so it won't let me do that. Am I missing something?

If I can't do it this way, I'll look at some of the other programs suggested.

 

I think I may have to give up on this. I downloaded 2 of the extraction files recommended here, and although they extracted folders, the vast majority were empty. I think I'll just work on trying to figure what information I have missing, and work on how to get it all back.

Thanks, Danielle

 

Have you tried from OE file>import messages>...etc?

 

Not sure what state your .dbx files are in, but I tried this after getting a new computer. With OE closed, I renamed the .dbx file that OE was using with no messages in to something like inbox.dbx.old, then copied the inbox.dbx into the folder for each .dbx I had on the old computer. (inbox.dbx just as an example). I opened OE, and voila, messages appeared.

Hoping this helps

noahawk