Have your emails disappeared from your Inbox within Outlook Express? If so it could point to a corrupt .dbx file.

So how to recover your files? The first thing is to follow the steps to locate and backup your Outlook Express folders. Once you have located and backed up your folders you can continue.

 

When you located your Outlook Express files your path to the Outlook Express root folder would be something like:

C:\Documents and Settings\winxpuser\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{6FF06860-8BD7-4413-A3C9-44716021E7A6}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

 

To see if your corrupt inbox is still on your PC you will need to open up this folder, don't copy the above line find your folder with "Tools" -> "Options", then click the "Maintenance" tab and finally the "Store Folder" button. Select the whole of this line and then click "Start" -> "Run", paste the line you have just copied into the "Run" box and click "OK".

 

You should see something like the following:

 

 

You may also see files called something like "Inbox(1).dbx". These are probably the new ones which have been created and the old, possibly corrupt ones, will be called "Inbox.dbx".

 

To test this, make sure Outlook Express is closed and rename the files with"(1)" in them e.g. "Inbox(1).dbx.old". Then rename the possibly corrupt folder to the name of the new file e.g. "Inbox(1).dbx".

 

Restart Outlook Express and see if your emails have appeared. It is advisable not to keep these files if they are corrupt so go back to the folder and rename the files back to their orignal names.

 

There are utilities available which will help you recover emails from corrupt files. I have listed a couple of them below, alternatively use the Google Search box at the top of the screen and search for something like "outlook express dbx extract" (without the quotes).

 

Macallan Outlook Express Extraction (free)

 

Outlook Express DBXtract ($7)