Damaged dbx file: what to do

[Michael Santovec]

Possible causes of DBX file corruption include:
- Background Compaction enabled - Tools, Options, Advanced (disable this)
- Compaction may have failed leaving a backup of the file (e.g. Inbox.DBT). The DBT file
if found can be renamed to DBX.
- Prior OE crash or Windows crash while OE was open
- McAfee Antivirus - disable or get the latest update
OLEXP: Messages Disappear If View Is Set to Show All Messages
(McAfee VirusScan version 4.5 or 6 is installed)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314421
- Failing hardware (e.g. RAM, or Hard drive).

For a corrupted Inbox (OE5+):
- Close Outlook Express
- Rename the file Inbox.dbx to Inboxold.dbx You can use Start, Find (or Search), Files or
Folders, Inbox.dbx to find it. On Win2000 you need enable the display of Hidden or System
files in the folder options and XP you need to use the advanced options to find Hidden or
System files.
- Open Outlook Express again.
- It will create a new empty Inbox.
- The following program may be able to recover some of the messages from the Inboxold.dbx
file.
DBXtract - http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx
- You can then open OE and select the Inbox and drag the recovered EML files back into it.

--

Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm

Hi,
It appears my inbox.dbx file is damaged as I can not longer
proporly open Outlook Express. After opening, OE will
freeze as the default selected folder is my inbox. If I
rename my inbox.bck, for example, then it opens correctly.
But I have many important messages in my damaged inbox file
which I do not want to loose. How can I repair this
apparently damaged dbx file ?
BTW, it is not the first time I end up with a damaged dbx
file... this is getting really annoying ! Are there some
known source for this problem ?
Thanks !

[rich]

seems im not the only one who is suddenly getting big
problems with OE !!!
check in C:/windows/application data/ identities/outlook
express FILES
and C:/windows/profiles /application data/
you may be lucky and find an identical file to the
corrupted one. if not then there are a whole load of
products that will repair corrupted .dbx files all cost
money most offer demos which if you download them appear
to work -- just the demos dont let you save the recovered
data ---- ive just used some thing called R-MAIL
which seems ok
hope you manage to fix it !

-----Original Message-----
Hi,
It appears my inbox.dbx file is damaged as I can not

longer

proporly open Outlook Express. After opening, OE will
freeze as the default selected folder is my inbox. If I
rename my inbox.bck, for example, then it opens correctly.
But I have many important messages in my damaged inbox

file

which I do not want to loose. How can I repair this
apparently damaged dbx file ?
BTW, it is not the first time I end up with a damaged dbx
file... this is getting really annoying ! Are there some
known source for this problem ?
Thanks !
.

[Adolph]

Hi Nathalie,
I know your source of the problem (How can I repair this apparently damaged DBX file?)
This is frequently occurred issue in Outlook Express; I also faced it and to remove such situation I preferred Outlook Express Restore software which is gratified to repair .dbx emails.

Check and try it- http://www.outlookexpressrestore.com/

After recovery process, you properly can open Outlook Express files in PC.