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Subject: Re: Need help with a corrupt .dbx file.
Author: alanlisa chen Date: 28 Oct 2011
References:
Author: alanlisa chen Date: 28 Oct 2011
References:
Hi,
Here are some BKF file recovery tools that may help you to repair your BKF file. Below is a list of them:
http://www.datanumen.com/abr/compare.htm
Most of them provide a free demo so you can try first.
Alan
Here are some BKF file recovery tools that may help you to repair your BKF file. Below is a list of them:
http://www.datanumen.com/abr/compare.htm
Most of them provide a free demo so you can try first.
Alan
> On Monday, December 10, 2007 1:25 PM John Corliss wrote:
> A friend of mine, just this morning, responded to a request in Outlook
> Express which asked him if he wanted to compress his email folder files
> by saying "Yes". The result was total file corruption of some very
> important business emails so that he can't get at them now.
>
> I just spent the last three hours on the phone with him, trying every
> trick in the book to get the emails back. The .dbx file in question
> still indicates a file size that shows his emails are in it, but Outlook
> Express says that there are no emails in that folder any more.
>
> This problem is clearly described on this page:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx
>
> If THIS isn't a good enough reason to abandon Outlook Express and go
> with Thunderbird, I don't know what is!!! And if Microsoft KNOWS about
> this problem (and they HAVE been, for quite a while I'm sure), WHY
> HAVEN'T THEY PUT OUT A FIX FOR IT YET? (can you tell I'm more than a
> little P.O.ed at the moment?)
>
> At any rate, I'm looking for suggestions on how to extract email from
> such a corrupt .dbx file. I'm aware of DBExtract:
>
> http://www.oehelp.com/dbxtract/default.aspx
>
> and my friend is giving it a try as I write this, but is having problems
> getting it to work.
>
> Does anybody know of a hack that can get around Microsoft's encryption
> of the email or some other way of extracting it?
>
> TIA.
>
> --
> John Corliss
> Express which asked him if he wanted to compress his email folder files
> by saying "Yes". The result was total file corruption of some very
> important business emails so that he can't get at them now.
>
> I just spent the last three hours on the phone with him, trying every
> trick in the book to get the emails back. The .dbx file in question
> still indicates a file size that shows his emails are in it, but Outlook
> Express says that there are no emails in that folder any more.
>
> This problem is clearly described on this page:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx
>
> If THIS isn't a good enough reason to abandon Outlook Express and go
> with Thunderbird, I don't know what is!!! And if Microsoft KNOWS about
> this problem (and they HAVE been, for quite a while I'm sure), WHY
> HAVEN'T THEY PUT OUT A FIX FOR IT YET? (can you tell I'm more than a
> little P.O.ed at the moment?)
>
> At any rate, I'm looking for suggestions on how to extract email from
> such a corrupt .dbx file. I'm aware of DBExtract:
>
> http://www.oehelp.com/dbxtract/default.aspx
>
> and my friend is giving it a try as I write this, but is having problems
> getting it to work.
>
> Does anybody know of a hack that can get around Microsoft's encryption
> of the email or some other way of extracting it?
>
> TIA.
>
> --
> John Corliss
>> On Monday, December 10, 2007 1:33 PM Bruce Hagen wrote:
>> Regardless of what e-mail client you use, you should keep a backup of your
>> messages that are so important.
>>
>> 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, 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. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
>> location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
>> location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise, write
>> the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.
>>
>> 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
>>
>> 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 100MB, 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.
>>
>> Backup and Restore:
>>
>> http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/
>>
>> http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
>>
>> And this good one click backup program.
>>
>> Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):
>>
>> http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
>> --
>> Bruce Hagen
>> MS-MVP Outlook Express
>> Imperial Beach, CA
>>
>>
>> "John Corliss" <jcorliss@fake.invalid> wrote in message
>> news:13lr14olaijft71@corp.supernews.com...
>> messages that are so important.
>>
>> 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, 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. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
>> location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
>> location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise, write
>> the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.
>>
>> 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
>>
>> 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 100MB, 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.
>>
>> Backup and Restore:
>>
>> http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/
>>
>> http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
>>
>> And this good one click backup program.
>>
>> Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):
>>
>> http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
>> --
>> Bruce Hagen
>> MS-MVP Outlook Express
>> Imperial Beach, CA
>>
>>
>> "John Corliss" <jcorliss@fake.invalid> wrote in message
>> news:13lr14olaijft71@corp.supernews.com...
>>> On Monday, December 10, 2007 5:03 PM John Corliss wrote:
>>> Bruce Hagen wrote:
>>>
>>> First of all, I want to thank you very much for taking the time to reply
>>> to my message Bruce! I appreciate your time and effort very much.
>>>
>>> And I agree with you. Your suggestions here were the very first things I
>>> told him that he should have been doing all along.
>>>
>>> It's very frustrating when I, myself, take all the precautions in the
>>> world (two hard drives, multiple backups on DVD and CD, etc. etc. etc.)
>>> and still have to deal with these kinds of problems because my friends
>>> and relatives don't listen to my advice, which is to do exactly the
>>> things you just recommended.
>>>
>>>
>>> I agree. Like, for instance, when you're burning a DVD you should walk
>>> away from the computer until the process is done. Same thing applies
>>> when compressing email. And I *did* ask Tony if he'd experienced some
>>> kind of interruption when he did the compression. He said that he stood
>>> back and let the computer finish the process without doing anything on
>>> it. However, what he probably doesn't understand is that you have to go
>>> offline before you compress your archived email. If you don't, and a
>>> message comes in, it can interrupt the process and lead to corruption.
>>> It would have been a good idea if Microsoft had made it so that if you
>>> started the compression process, you would automatically go offline for
>>> the duration.
>>>
>>>
>>> The only bloated .dbx file he had, was (as is usual whenever I deal with
>>> OE problems) the "Deleted Items.dbx" file. Most people don't know that
>>> even if you right click on that folder and select "Empty 'Deleted Items'
>>> Folder", this really doesn't happen! All that happens is that you now
>>> are no longer allowed access to your deleted email and it appears that
>>> it's gone. But it's not! The "Deleted Items" folder's corresponding .dbx
>>> file just keeps getting larger and larger and larger until OE itself
>>> becomes unstable! Then you have to go to the really for real folder
>>> containing the .dbx file and delete it manually. When you next restart
>>> OE, it will see that the file is missing and create a new (and empty) one.
>>>
>>> WHAT KIND OF PROGRAMMING IS THIS???
>>>
>>> Very bad. That's what kind. When I delete stuff and want to empty my
>>> trash, I mean that I really and truly want to delete it, not be fooled
>>> into thinking that it's gone when it's really not.
>>>
>>>
>>> I've never seen this Macallan Outlook Express Extraction program. I will
>>> give it a go. Many thanks for this link! I hope it can do the job.
>>>
>>>
>>> Yep, I saw that one when I was talking to Tony over the phone. A good
>>> site, but it mentions only DBExtact. In fact, that's where I found it.
>>> Tony wasted $7 on it because it failed to get anything out of the .dbx
>>> file in question.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I will pass this all on to Tony and try to explain it all to him. Many
>>> thanks for all your time and advice.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Regards,
>>> John Corliss
>>>
>>> First of all, I want to thank you very much for taking the time to reply
>>> to my message Bruce! I appreciate your time and effort very much.
>>>
>>> And I agree with you. Your suggestions here were the very first things I
>>> told him that he should have been doing all along.
>>>
>>> It's very frustrating when I, myself, take all the precautions in the
>>> world (two hard drives, multiple backups on DVD and CD, etc. etc. etc.)
>>> and still have to deal with these kinds of problems because my friends
>>> and relatives don't listen to my advice, which is to do exactly the
>>> things you just recommended.
>>>
>>>
>>> I agree. Like, for instance, when you're burning a DVD you should walk
>>> away from the computer until the process is done. Same thing applies
>>> when compressing email. And I *did* ask Tony if he'd experienced some
>>> kind of interruption when he did the compression. He said that he stood
>>> back and let the computer finish the process without doing anything on
>>> it. However, what he probably doesn't understand is that you have to go
>>> offline before you compress your archived email. If you don't, and a
>>> message comes in, it can interrupt the process and lead to corruption.
>>> It would have been a good idea if Microsoft had made it so that if you
>>> started the compression process, you would automatically go offline for
>>> the duration.
>>>
>>>
>>> The only bloated .dbx file he had, was (as is usual whenever I deal with
>>> OE problems) the "Deleted Items.dbx" file. Most people don't know that
>>> even if you right click on that folder and select "Empty 'Deleted Items'
>>> Folder", this really doesn't happen! All that happens is that you now
>>> are no longer allowed access to your deleted email and it appears that
>>> it's gone. But it's not! The "Deleted Items" folder's corresponding .dbx
>>> file just keeps getting larger and larger and larger until OE itself
>>> becomes unstable! Then you have to go to the really for real folder
>>> containing the .dbx file and delete it manually. When you next restart
>>> OE, it will see that the file is missing and create a new (and empty) one.
>>>
>>> WHAT KIND OF PROGRAMMING IS THIS???
>>>
>>> Very bad. That's what kind. When I delete stuff and want to empty my
>>> trash, I mean that I really and truly want to delete it, not be fooled
>>> into thinking that it's gone when it's really not.
>>>
>>>
>>> I've never seen this Macallan Outlook Express Extraction program. I will
>>> give it a go. Many thanks for this link! I hope it can do the job.
>>>
>>>
>>> Yep, I saw that one when I was talking to Tony over the phone. A good
>>> site, but it mentions only DBExtact. In fact, that's where I found it.
>>> Tony wasted $7 on it because it failed to get anything out of the .dbx
>>> file in question.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I will pass this all on to Tony and try to explain it all to him. Many
>>> thanks for all your time and advice.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Regards,
>>> John Corliss
>>>> On Monday, December 10, 2007 5:23 PM Bruce Hagen wrote:
>>>> I hope you are successful in getting the messages back. There are many
>>>> things that can cause a loss of messages. E-mail scanning has been known to
>>>> wipe out entire message stores.
>>>>
>>>> When compacting manually, as you noted, you should go offline. The compact
>>>> prompt only appears /after/ OE has been closed, so no message would be able
>>>> to come in.
>>>>
>>>> Once folders have been compacted, DBXpress is the only tool that has a
>>>> chance to retrieve them as it can read directly from the HDD. Macallan and
>>>> DBXtract rely on the messages being in a dbx file.
>>>>
>>>> OE is a very basic e-mail client, and has many faults. One reason it is no
>>>> longer being included in Windows versions newer than XP.
>>>>
>>>> There are many other more stable programs out there, including Office. I
>>>> would definitely consider something besides OE for a business.
>>>>
>>>> But I do stand by one major piece of advice. Back up no matter what program
>>>> you use. I'm sure there are plenty of things outside of OE that should be
>>>> backed up as well. Any computer can crash at any time.
>>>>
>>>> Good luck.
>>>> --
>>>> Bruce Hagen
>>>> MS-MVP Outlook Express
>>>> Imperial Beach, CA
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "John Corliss" <jcorliss@fake.invalid> wrote in message
>>>> news:13lrdtpotbcpu25@corp.supernews.com...
>>>> things that can cause a loss of messages. E-mail scanning has been known to
>>>> wipe out entire message stores.
>>>>
>>>> When compacting manually, as you noted, you should go offline. The compact
>>>> prompt only appears /after/ OE has been closed, so no message would be able
>>>> to come in.
>>>>
>>>> Once folders have been compacted, DBXpress is the only tool that has a
>>>> chance to retrieve them as it can read directly from the HDD. Macallan and
>>>> DBXtract rely on the messages being in a dbx file.
>>>>
>>>> OE is a very basic e-mail client, and has many faults. One reason it is no
>>>> longer being included in Windows versions newer than XP.
>>>>
>>>> There are many other more stable programs out there, including Office. I
>>>> would definitely consider something besides OE for a business.
>>>>
>>>> But I do stand by one major piece of advice. Back up no matter what program
>>>> you use. I'm sure there are plenty of things outside of OE that should be
>>>> backed up as well. Any computer can crash at any time.
>>>>
>>>> Good luck.
>>>> --
>>>> Bruce Hagen
>>>> MS-MVP Outlook Express
>>>> Imperial Beach, CA
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "John Corliss" <jcorliss@fake.invalid> wrote in message
>>>> news:13lrdtpotbcpu25@corp.supernews.com...
>>>>> On Monday, December 10, 2007 6:40 PM John Corliss wrote:
>>>>> Bruce Hagen wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> IMO, the main reason Microsoft no longer includes OE in Windows is that
>>>>> they're trying to move everybody over to using web services, like
>>>>> Hotmail. I simply can't believe that Microsoft, with all of their
>>>>> resources both financial and personnel-wise, can't write a better email
>>>>> client to be included with Windows.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Many people, like myself and my friend, can't afford MS Office though.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I told Tony that he should save up for a second hard drive to clone to,
>>>>> and a spindle of DVDs.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks. At this point though, neither DBExtract or any of the versions
>>>>> of the Macallan program had any luck. As for DBXpress, after wasting $7
>>>>> on DBExtract I doubt very much that Tony will gamble $25 on a different
>>>>> program from the same author that may or may not work. And that's a
>>>>> special offer price too.
>>>>>
>>>>> Seems almost like blackmail to me. This whole situation is totally
>>>>> unacceptable. If emails were simply stored as .rtf or .html files in a
>>>>> really for real folder, this problem would be non-existent. Heck, I
>>>>> periodically back up my email from Thunderbird to text files and it
>>>>> works perfectly.
>>>>>
>>>>> Moi disgustimento, Microsoft.
>>>>>
>>>>> But thanks for trying, Bruce. Guess Tony is out of luck.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> John Corliss
>>>>>
>>>>> IMO, the main reason Microsoft no longer includes OE in Windows is that
>>>>> they're trying to move everybody over to using web services, like
>>>>> Hotmail. I simply can't believe that Microsoft, with all of their
>>>>> resources both financial and personnel-wise, can't write a better email
>>>>> client to be included with Windows.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Many people, like myself and my friend, can't afford MS Office though.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I told Tony that he should save up for a second hard drive to clone to,
>>>>> and a spindle of DVDs.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks. At this point though, neither DBExtract or any of the versions
>>>>> of the Macallan program had any luck. As for DBXpress, after wasting $7
>>>>> on DBExtract I doubt very much that Tony will gamble $25 on a different
>>>>> program from the same author that may or may not work. And that's a
>>>>> special offer price too.
>>>>>
>>>>> Seems almost like blackmail to me. This whole situation is totally
>>>>> unacceptable. If emails were simply stored as .rtf or .html files in a
>>>>> really for real folder, this problem would be non-existent. Heck, I
>>>>> periodically back up my email from Thunderbird to text files and it
>>>>> works perfectly.
>>>>>
>>>>> Moi disgustimento, Microsoft.
>>>>>
>>>>> But thanks for trying, Bruce. Guess Tony is out of luck.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> John Corliss
>>>>>> On Monday, December 10, 2007 9:34 PM Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM wrote:
>>>>>> IE is replaced in Vista by Windows Mail, which is descended from OE but has
>>>>>> a different way of storing messages.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM
>>>>>> www.fjsmjs.com
>>>>>> Do not send email
>>>>>> a different way of storing messages.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM
>>>>>> www.fjsmjs.com
>>>>>> Do not send email
>>>>>>> On Sunday, October 23, 2011 1:26 AM alanlisa chen wrote:
>>>>>>> My dbx file once damaged too and I used professional repair toos to fix it.Here are some Outlook Express email recovery tools to repair your dbx file. Below is a list of them:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://www.datanumen.com/aoer/compare.htm
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Most of them provide a free demo so you can try first.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Alan
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://www.datanumen.com/aoer/compare.htm
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Most of them provide a free demo so you can try first.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Alan
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