Recovering Outlook Express Files
Discussion
Recently got a new PC. Burned onto CD all my Outlook Express mail folders on the old PC before I erased them .
When I try and open them on the new PC it tells me that they are .dbx files and there is no software installed to open them.
New PC is running Windows XP .
What software do I need to read these files and where can I download it from?.
When I try and open them on the new PC it tells me that they are .dbx files and there is no software installed to open them.
New PC is running Windows XP .
What software do I need to read these files and where can I download it from?.
lanciachris said:
All you have to do is run oe once on the new pc, then close it and overwrite the files with the old .dbx etc. files. Dont use crappy imports etc. Never failed for me.
Just expand a bit Chris , I don't quite follow.
I have 92Mb of files in about a dozen folders on a CD.
Windows tells me that the folders are .dbx files.
What exactly do I overwrite with what?
Please don't be afraid to insult my intelligence. You must assume for the purposes of this exercise that I am as thick as pigsh1t.
Oink Oink
Now youre asking 
The files are stored in different places depending on what windows youre running.
Do a search (start menu - search, files and folders) for inbox.dbx
Thatll show you where they are stored. Open that folder and copy the files from there to the corresponding location on your new setup. The folder name after the Identities directory will be different, but go to the identities folder and just open whatevers there. Once inside there the structure should be the same. Once youre in the outlook express folder copy the files in, overwriting any existing ones, run outlook express and presto. messages should be there.
The files are stored in different places depending on what windows youre running.
Do a search (start menu - search, files and folders) for inbox.dbx
Thatll show you where they are stored. Open that folder and copy the files from there to the corresponding location on your new setup. The folder name after the Identities directory will be different, but go to the identities folder and just open whatevers there. Once inside there the structure should be the same. Once youre in the outlook express folder copy the files in, overwriting any existing ones, run outlook express and presto. messages should be there.
With newer versions of Outlook Express, you can change the location of the store directory and if the directory you select already contains mail folders, it will pick these up with no messing about.
BUT take a backup first as approx. 50% of the time when swapping Outlook dbx files around I have lost files .. so be warned
BUT take a backup first as approx. 50% of the time when swapping Outlook dbx files around I have lost files .. so be warned
I could never get the OE import to work until I was told this trick.
On the new PC, create a new folder called Outlook Express on the C drive. In the newly created Outlook Express folder create another folder called Mail.
Copy the backed up .dbx files into this new mail folder.
Now since you have copied these files off a CD, they will be flagged as read only which you cannot import (don't ask me why!!). So select all the .dbx files, right click and select properties. In the box that pops up, untick 'Read only'.
Now open the new OE and go through the import sequence but tell it to import from your newly created folder and it should work.
The essence of this is that OE will ONLY import from a folder called Outlook Express>Mail
>> Edited by arcturus on Tuesday 4th January 08:56
On the new PC, create a new folder called Outlook Express on the C drive. In the newly created Outlook Express folder create another folder called Mail.
Copy the backed up .dbx files into this new mail folder.
Now since you have copied these files off a CD, they will be flagged as read only which you cannot import (don't ask me why!!). So select all the .dbx files, right click and select properties. In the box that pops up, untick 'Read only'.
Now open the new OE and go through the import sequence but tell it to import from your newly created folder and it should work.
The essence of this is that OE will ONLY import from a folder called Outlook Express>Mail
>> Edited by arcturus on Tuesday 4th January 08:56
Thanks for taking time to reply chaps, but unfortunately I couldn't make either of your suggestions work. I'm sure they should work it's probably only my my ham-fistedness.
lanciachris' suggestion that I search for .dbx files to overwrite, resulted in the PC constantly throwing it's teddy out with cries of "Microsoft Windows has experienced an unexpected error" abandoning the search part way through and switching off the active desktop
arcturus suggestion went ok to the a point where I attempted to import the messages from the new outlook express mail folder I had created.
Despite many attempts OE repeatedly told me " No messages can be found in this folder or another application is running that has the required files open. Please select another folder or try closing applications that have files open
The good news is I have managed to retrieve the messages from the CD and install them into OE.
I did this by downloading a programme called DBXtract. It cost the princely sum of $5.00 US (about the cost of a
) OK it's a bit laborious but for the technically challenged like me, it was worth every cent.
lanciachris' suggestion that I search for .dbx files to overwrite, resulted in the PC constantly throwing it's teddy out with cries of "Microsoft Windows has experienced an unexpected error" abandoning the search part way through and switching off the active desktop
arcturus suggestion went ok to the a point where I attempted to import the messages from the new outlook express mail folder I had created.
Despite many attempts OE repeatedly told me " No messages can be found in this folder or another application is running that has the required files open. Please select another folder or try closing applications that have files open
The good news is I have managed to retrieve the messages from the CD and install them into OE.
I did this by downloading a programme called DBXtract. It cost the princely sum of $5.00 US (about the cost of a
) OK it's a bit laborious but for the technically challenged like me, it was worth every cent. Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff