Outlook Express lost file import?

During a lockup, Outlook Express V6 'lost' the inbox contents. When I checked the folders there was a new Inbox (1).dbx file that had 3 messages that were downloaded when I restarted. I copied all the .dbx files to a couple of other folders, deleted all the files, and restarted. The three new downloads came back. Tried to import the inbox from one of the backups. Message indicated import was complete but no files were imported. I tried again to import files from all folders. It imported all but the inbox. I then had duplicate files in all the other folders. During this mess I deleted the Inbox (1).dbx and tried replacin g it with the old inbox file, tried again after renaming the old file to the (1) version, etc. The "lost" version of the inbox is a little over 12kbytes in size.

Any ideas on how to get back my inbox contents?

TIA

 

Hello and Welcome to MG's

Check your Inbox "view" it could be set to show only new messages and the reason for the three messages that showed.

View > Current View > Show all messages

You also might find this helpful in restoring if needed.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/270670/

 

View was set to show all messages.

Tried Import again, with only the inbox.dbx in a folder. This time I got a message that no messages existed or that the file was in use by another program. Outlook Express was the only program running.

Is there a free program that can read OE .dbx files?

TIA

 

This work?

http://www.majorgeeks.com/MiTeC_OE_Reader_d5304.html

 

Found the solution before Lev suggested it. Downloaded MiTec OEview, opened the messages, and saved them as .eml files. OE still would not recognize them. Found instructions on getting OE to recognize the .eml files. That did not work. Then found another site that explained how to drag and drop .eml files into the desired folder in OE. That worked. I now have all my messages back.

Thanks to all for your help.

 

Glad you got it figured out.