Importing Outlook Express Messages

On my Win98 system with Outlook Express 6, I restored a 2-month old
drive image to a new hard drive. I copied today's OE Inbox and other
OE folders to the hard drive. I'm trying to bring my OE up to day.
When I copy and paste the Inbox and other new email folders to
Windows/Application/Identities/Microsoft/Outlook Express, they don't
show up in the OE program. I tried to import the messages with OE's
File/Import/File Store, but when I browse to the folder with the .dbx
messages, it always says there are "no messages in that folder". I
know there's a way to do this. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Scott

"Scott" wrote in message

On my Win98 system with Outlook Express 6, I restored a 2-month old
drive image to a new hard drive. I copied today's OE Inbox and other
OE folders to the hard drive. I'm trying to bring my OE up to day.
When I copy and paste the Inbox and other new email folders to
Windows/Application/Identities/Microsoft/Outlook Express, they don't
show up in the OE program. I tried to import the messages with OE's
File/Import/File Store, but when I browse to the folder with the .dbx
messages, it always says there are "no messages in that folder". I
know there's a way to do this. Any suggestions?

There are programs that help you do that too, but if you insist on doing it
manually then what you 'should of done' Before you restored the image, is
to have highlighted and copied the "Entire Folder" of:
(not some of individual dbx files and will explain* later)
of C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\xxxYourNuberxxx\
...to a different partition other than the one you were about to restore, or
to a flash pen drive or whatever, then After you have restored your
previous image then go to that same folder location and delete the folder
(or rename it old or something) then now copy that latest one you had just
saved elsewhere to the same place to take up the charge - Done, it's that
simple. I've done it a hundred times.

(naturally do it with OE turned off)

*You can also do dbx files individually but there are specific
considerations with the folders.dbx file inner timestamps, that if you
don't restore in conjunction other dbx files, will mess up your newsgroup
fetch dates, etc, and you will end up with sized dbx files but blank
folders will show up - and so copying the beginning folder as outlined for
most people, is the best sure way to be safe.

Rick




Thanks!
Scott

ps..!

I just noticed that your post said your folder location is:
Windows/Application/Identities/Microsoft/OutlookExpress
...and I had said check:
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\xxxYourNuberxxx\

That's fine and is just our difference is IE/OEv5 verses v6 use different
locations, but, if you have IE/OE v6 and you updated from v5 then it must
be you still have your old locations folder store in it's old folder still,
which may not be active anymore...

The point to my ps here is be sure to copy the Entire Folder of whichever
'Current' folder store that's active, no matter where or what name it's
called.

Rick

"Scott" wrote in message ...
On my Win98 system with Outlook Express 6, I restored a 2-month old
drive image to a new hard drive. I copied today's OE Inbox and other
OE folders to the hard drive. I'm trying to bring my OE up to day.
When I copy and paste the Inbox and other new email folders to
Windows/Application/Identities/Microsoft/Outlook Express, they don't
show up in the OE program. I tried to import the messages with OE's
File/Import/File Store, but when I browse to the folder with the .dbx
messages, it always says there are "no messages in that folder". I
know there's a way to do this. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Scott

Open Outlook Express, click on tools Options Maintenance tab Store Folder
button. Note where the folders are stored.
Close Outlook Express.
Open Explorer and copy the .dbx file that you want to import to the folder that you
noted. Make sure the folder you copied over does not have the same name as any other
..dbx file in that folder.
In the folder that you noted, rename the Folders.dbx file to Folders.old. A new
Folders.dbx will be created with all your old and new folders when you reopen Outlook
Express.
Start Outlook Express.
In the Folders pane, you see the .dbx file that you copied. You can drag items to
their appropriate locations, or rename the folder.

Also see:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/partial.htm
and
http://www.oehelp.com/oebackup/default.aspx
and
http://www.oehelp.com/dbxtract/default.aspx

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

Rick Chauvin wrote:

"Scott" wrote in message

On my Win98 system with Outlook Express 6, I restored a 2-month old
drive image to a new hard drive. I copied today's OE Inbox and other
OE folders to the hard drive. I'm trying to bring my OE up to day.
When I copy and paste the Inbox and other new email folders to
Windows/Application/Identities/Microsoft/Outlook Express, they don't
show up in the OE program. I tried to import the messages with OE's
File/Import/File Store, but when I browse to the folder with the .dbx
messages, it always says there are "no messages in that folder". I
know there's a way to do this. Any suggestions?

There are programs that help you do that too, but if you insist on doing it
manually then what you 'should of done' Before you restored the image, is
to have highlighted and copied the "Entire Folder" of:
(not some of individual dbx files and will explain* later)
of C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\xxxYourNuberxxx\
..to a different partition other than the one you were about to restore, or
to a flash pen drive or whatever, then After you have restored your
previous image then go to that same folder location and delete the folder
(or rename it old or something) then now copy that latest one you had just
saved elsewhere to the same place to take up the charge - Done, it's that
simple. I've done it a hundred times.

(naturally do it with OE turned off)

*You can also do dbx files individually but there are specific
considerations with the folders.dbx file inner timestamps, that if you
don't restore in conjunction other dbx files, will mess up your newsgroup
fetch dates, etc, and you will end up with sized dbx files but blank
folders will show up - and so copying the beginning folder as outlined for
most people, is the best sure way to be safe.

Rick


Thanks!
Scott


Rick,

I have the original OE (xxxYourNumberxxx) folder on another hard drive, which I
can reinstall and then copy to an external drive. I'll give it a try.

Another question. I think some of the problems with the old OE installation is that
I moved a couple of years worth of messages and attachments out of the Inbox into
newly created folders in OE. Some folders contain 480MB in messages (yes, I know,
that's a lot). Is that just too big for OE to handle?

Thanks!
Scott

Brian A wrote:

"Scott" wrote in message ...
On my Win98 system with Outlook Express 6, I restored a 2-month old
drive image to a new hard drive. I copied today's OE Inbox and other
OE folders to the hard drive. I'm trying to bring my OE up to day.
When I copy and paste the Inbox and other new email folders to
Windows/Application/Identities/Microsoft/Outlook Express, they don't
show up in the OE program. I tried to import the messages with OE's
File/Import/File Store, but when I browse to the folder with the .dbx
messages, it always says there are "no messages in that folder". I
know there's a way to do this. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Scott

Open Outlook Express, click on tools Options Maintenance tab Store Folder
button. Note where the folders are stored.
Close Outlook Express.
Open Explorer and copy the .dbx file that you want to import to the folder that you
noted. Make sure the folder you copied over does not have the same name as any other
.dbx file in that folder.
In the folder that you noted, rename the Folders.dbx file to Folders.old. A new
Folders.dbx will be created with all your old and new folders when you reopen Outlook
Express.
Start Outlook Express.
In the Folders pane, you see the .dbx file that you copied. You can drag items to
their appropriate locations, or rename the folder.

Also see:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/partial.htm
and
http://www.oehelp.com/oebackup/default.aspx
and
http://www.oehelp.com/dbxtract/default.aspx

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375


Brian,

I tried it, and I was able to copy an old .dbx folder over to the Folder Store. However,
when I tried the same with a few other folders, they wouldn't show up in OE, even after
renaming Folders.dbx to Folders.old. Any idea why it only worked once?

Thanks!
Scott

"Scott" wrote in message


[...]

Rick,

I have the original OE (xxxYourNumberxxx) folder on another hard drive,
which I can reinstall and then copy to an external drive. I'll give it
a try.

My point before was specifically saying that before you overwrote the
current new partition image (if that's what you wanted the latest OE store
from) was to then first copy the complete (xxxYourNumberxxx) folder store
from it to a different partition or drive!

Another question. I think some of the problems with the old OE
installation is that I moved a couple of years worth of messages and
attachments out of the Inbox into newly created folders in OE. Some
folders contain 480MB in messages (yes, I know, that's a lot). Is that
just too big for OE to handle?

Once it gets too big OE just takes wat too long to open or switch between
newsgroups, as well I don't like the way it acts being to slow and
problematic. I generally don't like to let any 'one' dbx file get bigger
than let's say 10 MB. For me though once individual dbx files start
getting too big, generally by the time that happens I've already made a
more current backup image, and so even though I will run the OE Rules to
delete older messages past a certain date, those deleted messages are still
Never lost if I need an original reference, because I can simply copy from
my backup images any/all dbx files needed and quickly access what I need
without disrupting anything current, and so is why going forward you always
want to protect/save current dbx stores. There's a knack of understanding
to do it, and if you do it wrong or inappropriately mix folders.dbx's then
you can lose/corrupt your stores and they will show up blank like I think
you are saying happened to you. I only like using O or OE's folder import
function if transferring OE stores from Win98x to W2K or WXP or vise versa
and then I will sometimes use that feature, or other more functional
softwares depending on the job needed; otherwise on same OS I always do it
manually since for me it's so much safer, faster, and all dbx inclusive.

Since you said (I thought) you use Drive Image partitioning software, and
that's what interested me in your post in the first place since I use that
and similar softwares all the time, and routinely am swapping images to an
fro for one reason or another; but in a restored images circumstance, when
you want to bring that older OE store current by replacing current OE store
into it, then imho&e without question the easiest, fastest (few seconds)
and safest way for me, is after the restore, remove the old folders
complete contents from it's location, and put in the newly saved current.

Naturally there are many variations of tasks, depending of what you want
the final outcome to be.

Rick

Thanks!
Scott

Scott wrote:
| Brian A wrote:
||
|| "Scott" wrote in message
|| ...
||| On my Win98 system with Outlook Express 6, I restored a 2-month old
||| drive image to a new hard drive. I copied today's OE Inbox and other
||| OE folders to the hard drive. I'm trying to bring my OE up to day.
||| When I copy and paste the Inbox and other new email folders to
||| Windows/Application/Identities/Microsoft/Outlook Express, they don't
||| show up in the OE program. I tried to import the messages with OE's
||| File/Import/File Store, but when I browse to the folder with the
||| .dbx messages, it always says there are "no messages in that
||| folder". I know there's a way to do this. Any suggestions?
|||
||| Thanks!
||| Scott
||
|| Open Outlook Express, click on tools Options Maintenance tab
|| Store Folder button. Note where the folders are stored.
|| Close Outlook Express.
|| Open Explorer and copy the .dbx file that you want to import to the
|| folder that you noted. Make sure the folder you copied over does not
|| have the same name as any other .dbx file in that folder.
|| In the folder that you noted, rename the Folders.dbx file to
|| Folders.old. A new Folders.dbx will be created with all your old and
|| new folders when you reopen Outlook Express.
|| Start Outlook Express.
|| In the Folders pane, you see the .dbx file that you copied. You can
|| drag items to their appropriate locations, or rename the folder.
||
|| Also see:
|| http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/partial.htm
|| and
|| http://www.oehelp.com/oebackup/default.aspx
|| and
|| http://www.oehelp.com/dbxtract/default.aspx
||
|| --
||
|| Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
|| Conflicts start where information lacks.
|| http://basconotw.mvps.org/
||
|| Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
|| How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
|
|
| Brian,
|
| I tried it, and I was able to copy an old .dbx folder over to the
| Folder Store. However, when I tried the same with a few other
| folders, they wouldn't show up in OE, even after renaming Folders.dbx
| to Folders.old. Any idea why it only worked once?
|
| Thanks!
| Scott

If one worked by Brian A's method, they all should work. Therefore...

(1) Because I little doubt most words out of Chauvin's mouth, I guess it
could be a datestamps problem, if you've been moving .dbx in/out of the
OE Store. (I don't do that anymore.)

(2) Can it be an "OE, View, Current View" setting to blame? After moving
the .dbx in & clicking it in OE, ensure only "Show All Messages" is
bolted for it.

(3) Can it be the .dbx files are empty? Even if empty & compacted,
Explorer will show a size of 59 KB for them. If not compacted, then even
larger figures may show.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

References:

Backup & Restore OE Data
http://www.insideoe.com/backup/index.htm
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

OE Files & Settings
http://www.insideoe.com/files/index.htm

OE Registry Keys
http://www.insideoe.com/files/regkeys.htm

Importing OE Data (all DBX files, including Folders.dbx)
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/how.htm#importOE5

Importing a single DBX file
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/how.htm#importdbx
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx (last paragraph)
--
OE-specific newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof...xpress.general

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)

Scott wrote:
On my Win98 system with Outlook Express 6, I restored a 2-month old
drive image to a new hard drive. I copied today's OE Inbox and other
OE folders to the hard drive. I'm trying to bring my OE up to day.
When I copy and paste the Inbox and other new email folders to
Windows/Application/Identities/Microsoft/Outlook Express, they don't
show up in the OE program. I tried to import the messages with OE's
File/Import/File Store, but when I browse to the folder with the .dbx
messages, it always says there are "no messages in that folder". I
know there's a way to do this. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Scott

Did you make sure the folder(s) did not have the same name as one already present
as stated in the instructions?
quote
Make sure the folder you copied over does not have the same name as any other .dbx
file in that folder.
/quote

I see Pa Bear responded and his advice is what should be followed up on since it is
all OE specific.


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375



"Scott" wrote in message ...


Brian A wrote:

"Scott" wrote in message ...
On my Win98 system with Outlook Express 6, I restored a 2-month old
drive image to a new hard drive. I copied today's OE Inbox and other
OE folders to the hard drive. I'm trying to bring my OE up to day.
When I copy and paste the Inbox and other new email folders to
Windows/Application/Identities/Microsoft/Outlook Express, they don't
show up in the OE program. I tried to import the messages with OE's
File/Import/File Store, but when I browse to the folder with the .dbx
messages, it always says there are "no messages in that folder". I
know there's a way to do this. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Scott

Open Outlook Express, click on tools Options Maintenance tab Store Folder
button. Note where the folders are stored.
Close Outlook Express.
Open Explorer and copy the .dbx file that you want to import to the folder that
you
noted. Make sure the folder you copied over does not have the same name as any
other
.dbx file in that folder.
In the folder that you noted, rename the Folders.dbx file to Folders.old. A new
Folders.dbx will be created with all your old and new folders when you reopen
Outlook
Express.
Start Outlook Express.
In the Folders pane, you see the .dbx file that you copied. You can drag items to
their appropriate locations, or rename the folder.

Also see:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/partial.htm
and
http://www.oehelp.com/oebackup/default.aspx
and
http://www.oehelp.com/dbxtract/default.aspx

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375


Brian,

I tried it, and I was able to copy an old .dbx folder over to the Folder Store.
However,
when I tried the same with a few other folders, they wouldn't show up in OE, even
after
renaming Folders.dbx to Folders.old. Any idea why it only worked once?

Thanks!
Scott