Compacted messages

  • Thread starter Thread starter P. Jayant
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P. Jayant

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XP during the Disk Cleanup operation indicates that certain old messages

could be compacted. Similarly Outlook Express suggests compacting messages

from time to time. But I have not seen XP reminding a user to look at his

compacted message folder. Is it because these compacted messages are

automatically deleted by XP after a certain period of non-use. Or is the

User expected to open the compacted messages - assuming it is accessible to

him - and delete the compacted messages when he thinks they are of no more

use to him?



P. Jayant
 
"P. Jayant" wrote in message

news:edYCsbW9KHA.5476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> XP during the Disk Cleanup operation indicates that certain old messages

> could be compacted. Similarly Outlook Express suggests compacting

> messages from time to time. But I have not seen XP reminding a user to

> look at his compacted message folder. Is it because these compacted

> messages are automatically deleted by XP after a certain period of

> non-use. Or is the User expected to open the compacted messages -

> assuming it is accessible to him - and delete the compacted messages

> when he thinks they are of no more use to him?

>

> P. Jayant





Compacting does not remove messages. If messages are lost when compacting,

I would respond with this:



The two most common reasons for what you describe is disruption of the

compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), or bloated

folders. More on that below.



Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:

http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact



Why Mail Disappears:

http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone



About File Corruption:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx



Recovery tools:



If you are running XP/SP2, or SP3, and are fully patched, then you should

have a backup of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, (or possibly the

message store), copied as bak files.



To restore a bak folder to the message store folder, first find the

location of the Message Store.



Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of

your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to it in

Windows Explorer or, copy and paste it into Start | Run.



In WinXP, the .dbx files are by default marked as hidden. To view these

files in Explorer, you must enable Show Hidden Files and Folders under

Start | Control Panel | Folder Options | View.



Close OE and then in Windows Explorer, click on the dbx file for the

missing, or empty, folder and drag it to the Desktop. It can be deleted

later once you have successfully restored the bak file. Minimize the

Message Store.



Open OE and, if the folder is missing, create a folder with the *exact*

same name as the bak file you want to restore but without the .bak. Eg: If

the file is Saved.bak, the new folder should be named Saved. Open the new

folder and then close OE. If the folder is there, but just empty, continue

on to the next step.



First, check if there is a bak file already in the message store. If there

is, and you removed the dbx file, go ahead and rename it to dbx.



If it isn't already in the message store, open the Recycle bin and right

click on the bak file for the folder in question and click Restore. Open

the message store back up and change the file extension from .bak to .dbx.

Close the message store and open OE. The messages should now be back in

the folder.



If the messages are successfully restored, you can go ahead and delete the

old dbx file that you moved to the Desktop.



If you do not have bak copies of your dbx files in the Recycle Bin, then:



DBXpress run in Extract From Disk Mode is the best chance to recover

messages:

http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx



And see:

http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4



A general warning to help avoid this in the future:



Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become

corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move

your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user created

folders under 300MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible.



Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant

layer of protection that eats up CPUs, slows down sending and receiving,

and causes a multitude of problems such as time-outs, account setting

changes and has even been responsible for lose of messages. Your

up-to-date A/V program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For

more, see:

http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3



And backup often.



Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB Freeware)

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx

--

Bruce Hagen

MS-MVP [Mail]

Imperial Beach, CA
 
Disk Cleanup offers to /compress/ files, not compact them, and this has

nothing to do with compacting OE folders.



P. Jayant wrote:

> XP during the Disk Cleanup operation indicates that certain old messages

> could be compacted. Similarly Outlook Express suggests compacting messages

> from time to time. But I have not seen XP reminding a user to look at his

> compacted message folder...
 
Could you kindly throw some light on what is the difference between

"compacting" and "compressing"? In plain English, the two words mean the

same thing.



P. Jayant
 
I was under the impression that XP compresses files which have not been

accessed by the user or compacts messages in Outlook Express (newsgroup

messages, in particular) which Users read and forget. I would have no

objection to such messages being deleted from the system after a User

specified period, if the period can be specified in an Option Menu.



P. Jayant
 
Compacting is the "removing" of the space occupied by the deleted

messages. Compressing is the process of using an algorithm to store the

same data in a different method, such as Zip or RAR.



P. Jayant wrote:



> Could you kindly throw some light on what is the difference between

> "compacting" and "compressing"? In plain English, the two words mean the

> same thing.

>

> P. Jayant

>

>
 
You would need to review the Options in OE, or you could post to one of

the Outlook Express groups about it. Don't use OE, so can't help you there.



P. Jayant wrote:



> I was under the impression that XP compresses files which have not been

> accessed by the user or compacts messages in Outlook Express (newsgroup

> messages, in particular) which Users read and forget. I would have no

> objection to such messages being deleted from the system after a User

> specified period, if the period can be specified in an Option Menu.

>

> P. Jayant

>

>
 
In addition to PA Bear's hint (please don't keep snipping replies: "Disk

Cleanup offers to /compress/ files, not compact them, and this has nothing

to do with compacting OE folders") and to Bob I's answer, I would add that

compacting is something that Outlook Express can do to messages in its store

while compressing is an operation that Windows XP can do to files, in case

that clarifies it at all. While the two may mean the same thing in plain

English, the two have different sources in XP.





"P. Jayant" wrote in message

news:ep9hDxa9KHA.3880@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

> Could you kindly throw some light on what is the difference between

> "compacting" and "compressing"? In plain English, the two words mean the

> same thing.

>

> P. Jayant

>
 
+1



Bob I wrote:

> Compacting is the "removing" of the space occupied by the deleted

> messages. Compressing is the process of using an algorithm to store the

> same data in a different method, such as Zip or RAR.

>

>> Could you kindly throw some light on what is the difference between

>> "compacting" and "compressing"? In plain English, the two words mean the

>> same thing.
 
Only if you start quoting the entire message to which you're replying AND

check in at Windows Update to install KB978542 and the other updates your

computer's missing.



P. Jayant wrote:

> Could you kindly throw some light on what is the difference between

> "compacting" and "compressing"? In plain English, the two words mean the

> same thing.
 
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