What version of outlook express?

What is it that you are trying to recover from the old account and why do you need it if the new one is working?

Thanks, Zep. I use Outlook Express 6 and I don't think I mentioned that I have XP. Evidently when the old account was deleted- or whatever happened to it- none of the folders were returned to the new account. I wrote that I used the 'close' button at my Identities window thinking that would only close the window. Surely I didn't tell the computer to close my identity-

What happens when you click File and Switch Identities? I bet all of your old mail and folders are just in another identity.

Pam

gmom,

As a starting point open Explorer > Search > All Files and Folders and search for *.dbx (* is the asterisk key).

There is a good chance your emails are still there somewhere.

Assuming that you find them they will be in two separate folders so you will need to identify which are your old files and which belong to the new account. The quickest way to do this is to create a new empty folder called "New" in Outlook Express and then search again.

Post back with your results and somebody is sure to suggest a link with recovery instructions. There are a number of free programmes to do the job (I have done it many times), but it is a bit long winded to explain on the forum.

Colin

I don't think you need this information but I'll give it anyway. I had this saved on how to find Outlook Express mail.
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The easiest way to locate Outlook Express' email store is to ask Outlook Express. Open it up, and then in Tools, Options, on the Maintenance tab there's a button labeled Store Folder. Click that and it will tell you the folder containing your email folder.
cg
Highlight the address and right click it and left click copy.
Start - Run - Paste in the address - click OK
cg

Unfortunately nothing has found that email. A search for *.dbx only brought up old folders from a couple of years ago (which I don't understand at all since some of the folders were deleted long ago)- none of the ones I lost. The store search only showed my present Outlook Express which is so new that there is only one folder in it. Switching identities didn't help either. I did a search for one of the folders that is missing and the only thing it found was the bak file in my recycle bin. So do any of you think I could recover the information contained in the bak files?

I don't know what would help but you can go to the Recycle Bin and Restore the bak file. Find it and copy and paste it to your new Outlook email location.
(At this location = Outlook Express. Open it up, and then in Tools, Options, on the Maintenance tab there's a button labeled Store Folder.)
It may not help but maybe latter someone else can give the answer on how to use it and you will know were it's at.
cg

gmom,

Things aren't looking very good now so try a different approach.

FreeUndelete from www.officerecovery.com is a safe way of exploring what is still recoverable on your system. (There are some other similarly named programmes around that are not so reliable so take care if you Google.)

Colin

Here is a link that might be useful: FreeUndelete Instructions and Download

An update- I did a search for .bak files, including hidden files and folders. I discovered more than Outlook Express is backed up. One interesting thing was there was a .bak of the inbox from back in August. Other than that, the only OE files it found were the ones in my recycle bin and, of coure, the few things in this new account. If I restore any of those where would they go? Colin, I will download FreeUndelete and see what I can do. I will take another look at the Store Folder, too. Thanks so much for the help. I really appreciate it.

gmom,

Here is the link that is most likely to save your day: www.OEHelp.com/OETips

Scroll down to the red 'Update'.

Have a read, but before you do anything else, download the free programme Outlook Express Quick Backup (don't worry about the command line instructions because you never use them - you just push the buttons).

Before you run OE Quick Backup create a new Backup Folder (preferably on another drive) e.g. 'Current'. Run OE Quick Backup and select the 'Current' folder then click 'Backup All'.

Once your latest data is safely backed up in 'Current' create a couple more folders e.g. 'Old 2008' and 'Old 2007'.

This is because, if things work o.k., you are likely to end up with several .dbx files with the same name and you need to save them in different places - as explained in the next paragraph. So, to recover e.g. an old "Sent" email folder copy sent.bak and save it to your current identity as sent1.dbx and then backup that to "Old 2008".

A quick word about .bak files - when Widows saves a later version of any file with the same name as the original one it changes the extension of the original file to .bak e.g. text.txt to text.bak and program.exe to program.bak. This gives you only one chance to 'easily' recover your data because if you save again using the same name then the first .bak file is overwritten - this is windows way of preventing your hard drive from becoming full with obsolete files.

N.B. My Windows theory might not be 100% correct (I am both old and self-taught!) but the general principles are about right and it could save you from corrupting anything that you do manage to recover. Good luck.

Colin

Here is a link that might be useful: Outlook Express Help Main Index