I will kill the SOB.
I can't goddamn believe it! I have lost all of my email AGAIN in Outlook Express!

I like XP but this thing with OE is really pissing me off!

Does anyone know of a plugin or program that will backup the damn OE database every time I shut it down?

You sure it's not a virus or something else and not Outlook Express? I've been using OE for years now for numerous accounts and have over 100,000 messages in my folders. I have upgraded from Win 98 to Win 98 SE to Win XP all with the same email settings and never lost a thing. Maybe it's users error and not Microsoft error. Also, there is not a line of code written by Bill Gates in OE.

Rob

Yeah I know, I'm mainly venting.

The first time they got lost when my system failed. For some reason I can't inport them to the new install.

This time I think it might be my fault. When I was originally trying to get the old messages in I apparently left OE's store in the transferred files from the old drive. Not realizing that I did I was cleaning up the HD that the transferred files are still on and deleted that directory since I thought I was done with it. All while OE was open. Now there is apparently no messages left that I can import back in.

DAMN! He's still responsible for the comapny though and right now vengence would feel real good.

i use tweak IE 3.0 to do all sorts of IE and OE backups. you can even select the things you want to back up too. very handy but has to be done manually. backs up messages, registry settings, blocked senders, the whole deal. i llike it.

You sure it's not a virus or something else and not Outlook Express?

Sorry, it doesn't take a virus for Outlook to eat its e-mail database. You can simply look at the thing sideways and it will die.

That's why I've been using Forte's Agent exclusively for as long as I've been on the internet. Rock-stable, and I've never ever lost an e-mail message. Let's see, the oldest message currently sitting in my Agent database is Feb 2000, and if I wasn't so anal about cleaning up old messages, I'd probably have stuff in there from 1996.

Got you beat by a little bit! My oldest message is from Oct 1999.

I use Outlook. I've never lost a message.

Tom

You might try here. http://www.slipstick.com/addins/housekeeping.htm

For some people, Tony, for some people. Like CruzThs I've been running OE since as long as I can remember. I have messages since November 1999. How many? over 4700 (that counts all local folders, which are all maintained in the database). That doesn't count my Hotmail accounts that work perfectly whenever I use them (which isn't often anymore. I'm thinking of letting them expire). Mine have survived numerous formattings, OS upgrades, and computer switches, and still remains intact.

I was under the impression that all you need to do is backup a directory. It's easy to point OE to a new store folder, as long as you say you want to switch to that folder instead of just moving to it or however they worded it(which deletes all your files in the folder you're moving to).

I don't know, I'm lucky I guess. OE is pretty much the only thing I've never had problems with (knock on wood...)

Sorry to hear about that Steve, I have been using an old version of eudora light for my email at it is very easy to back up all of your messages at once, I even formatted my hard drive and then just copied one small file back over and all of my messages are back. Also you have bellsouth like I do so all of your mail should be on the website... unless oe deleted it.

My oldest message is Oct 1999.

Hmm... Jan 16, 1998 for me. It's an email from a developer at Side Effects about how to use dbx to debug custom plugins for Houdini.

I've never actually used email on a Windows box, but I only get viruses from people who use Outlook.

Sad, I know, but my earliest emails are from 1993. I think I received them using zmail on an old SGI box and as they contain useful technical info I have never deleted them. They are still fully compatible with my mail apps on various *nix platforms I have round the house. Why do people need to upgrade mail clients anyway? Except for security reasons.

At work I use Notes and Outlook - hate them both, but Notes wins hands down for stability and user-friendliness. When I have to use Outlook I disable everything I can, and force it to only receive plain text.

strange.
I use outlook express on XP and haven't lost a thing so far.
maybe connected with the fact that all mail is stored on my imap server?

and to quote the obvious: wouldn't have happened with linux....


bye,
[L]


ps. I would NEVER try to convince you to stop thinking of violence against billborg.

Hmmm, how about running a local IMAP server and pointing OE at that? I've never lost any mail in OE either.

You could leave OE fetching mail, but keep all your folders on the local IMAP server?

Hugo

How would I do that Hugo?

You should be able to just backup the entire OE folder directory. There should be a .dbx file for each folder.

That's what I did for a while. To restore you just create each folder again, open it up in OE so that it creates a blank file and then you can copy your saved folder over it... (It does make sense honest! Not very good at explaining it though)

- Trevor

I just found this in my old mail:

Date: Sat, 16 Mar 91 11:32:56 GMT

Remember 2-digit years? Ouch!

Hmm... I've been using OE for years. My oldest message goes back to July of 1998.
Ive never lost a thing, and Ive switched computers many times since I started using it. Even through the transitions, no sweat.
Last couple of years I've been using IMAP instead of POP.
IMAP is a bazillion(tm) times better than POP. Now its almost impossible for me to lose any mail.
Been using Mdaemon as my mail server running on a Win2k server.

One thing about OE is that it can hide your mail and databases and stuff in places where you dont think they might be.
Lately since Win2k the likely place to try and import mail and settings from is from somewhere around here: C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\microsoft\identities\etc. etc.
Take a look around that area for your mail. Usually in a folder labeled outlook express or summat with a huge long name that looks like garbage. Youll need to stop hiding hidden folders though.
Good luck.

Z~

You win

I remember that old fashioned stuff made from trees and plants, what was it called - oh yeah 'paper' I'm sure I have some old 'letters' kicking about.

Yeah, I know I'm getting silly now. And I haven't even got the excuse of bumping my post count!

Maybe this will make you feel better..
http://home.epix.net/~tjwagner/gates.html

Also, maybe you could switch to Outlook98 instead. I'm not sure with Outlook Express but with Outlook you can Archive messages, place them in different .PST files for backup purposes and export them.

I've never lost a message and I've been using Outlook98 since...well, 1998. (just went to Outlook2k).

For some people, Tony, for some people. Like CruzThs I've been running OE since as long as I can remember. I have messages since November 1999. How many? over 4700 (that counts all local folders, which are all maintained in the database).

Hope none of those 4700 messages are important. Because Outlook is just a ticking time bomb.

If it's a ticking time bomb, why did they wire it to detonate after over 3 or 4 years? That doesn't sound like a bomb to me. It is for you, but as I said, lots of people here don't have problems with it.

My mail archives used to be just a zip up of my Eudora folder. I've since moved to IMAP for all of my new mail, and once I get the archive issue solved, will open up all the mbox files from Eudora and toss them into my IMAP server.

Thats one thing thats great about Eudora, it uses the standard mbox format for storage, then just creates a seperate index file of it's own for searching and speed.

>> Hope none of those 4700 messages are important. Because Outlook is just a ticking time bomb.

You say this without much merit Tony. I have been a Microsoft employee for 6 years now where everyone in the company uses Outlook for internal email and scheduling. I have NEVER lost a single email (andI get more than 200 messages a day to my Microsoft email account) or have heard of anyone else loosing mail. Sure, Outlook is big, bloated and complicated but it is the best out there. A ticking time bomb, I don't think so. My Empeg crashes far more than any of my Microsoft products.

Okay, you don't know anyone who's lost their outlook email database. I accept that. But I now know at least three, and it's been multiple times for each of them.

I have NEVER lost a single email (andI get more than 200 messages a day to my Microsoft email account) or have heard of anyone else loosing mail.

I've seen several instances between two companies where .pst files have become unreadable by Outlook, and the .pst repair tool has failed. Not many mind you, but I have seen it happen. I personally switched away from Outlook for corporate e-mail a while back, and now just use Eudora tied into the IMAP support of Exchange.

This wasn't due to a reliability problem, but instead the ease fo filter setup in Eudora. I have literially hundreds of filters to toss my messages into the right box before I read them, and 99% were set up by simply right clicking a message, and selecting add filter. From there, I tell it what criteria (from, to, subject) and hit the mailbox it should go to. Nice and simple, and if I want advanced rules, a simple click on the filter screen brings up tons of functionality. If MS chooses to "innovate" the ease of this, I might switch back

And if no one lost mail at MS due to an Outlook virus, I'm impressed with the admins there. I Love you and related ones have spread like wildfire through companies I know of that use Exchange/Outlook. Just as Code Red tore through the network here, and Nimda still makes it's appearance from time to time.

At home though nothing will drag me away from Mail.app on the Mac, or the quickness of just using a web browser to my IMAP server.

I have been a Microsoft employee for 6 years now where everyone in the company uses Outlook for internal email and scheduling. I have NEVER lost a single email ... or have heard of anyone else loosing mail.

Yeah, but you've probably got all of your mail sitting on an Exchange server, right? And you've probably got a dozen admins that do nothing except deal with that Exchange server, right? And they're probably good enough that they can perform restores from tape without you ever knowing about it. Folks here are talking about local stores, which are much flakier.

And I find it hard to believe that your Windows never crashes. You sound like this guy I heard the other day on the TV that claimed that George W. Bush is our most intellectual president ever. On the other hand, if you really never have had Windows crashes, I'd like to get your secret, as would the rest of the planet.

Why does everyone hate microsoft? Where would computer technology be if it weren't for microsoft? People always bash microsoft but you don't see them making OS's or email programs. Is it just because microsoft is mainstream and some people have a tendency to hate anything and everything mainstream? If microsoft weren't so huge I bet many of those same people would be saying they love microsoft and calling Bill Gates their hero.

In reply to:

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My Empeg crashes far more than any of my Microsoft products.

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ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!

oh, thank you ... needed a good laugh for the day

I hate Microsoft because they have instilled in the general public the expectation for their computers to not work correctly. Also, they go out of their way to make their products incompatible with standards just enough so that if you want to run Windows, it makes it very hard to run anything else at the same time.

On the other hand, you're at least somewhat correct in that they have often spurred the mainstream computer market (or at least purchased companies who have). But if they hadn't, honestly, someone else would have.

As to the implication of Bush being dumb....he graduated from Yale, flew fighter jets, ran many successful businesses, was in charge of one of the largest states in the nation, and became president. Daddy or no daddy, you gotta have your shit together to pull that off. I'd say that people who are deluded by the liberal media just because they put a picture in the paper where he's making a funny looking face are the real dumb ones. But yes, the pictures that the papers find of him do look funny.