Hi Evreyone:

I am not new to the Windows file system but this one has got me going. I have a person who never deletes his messages for Outlook Express. Today he has lost 10 000 email messages and needs them back. I have gone searching all over and there are no where to be found. I have tried the PC3000 to clone his drive due to the fact it takes 45 min now to boot and it is a nightmere to work with. I have tried various software to find these lost messages. Windows file system will store up to a point the number of messages inside a computer. He has never compressed any of these messages and it is a mess all the way around. He has only lost the messages in his current in box and the ones inside folders are still present. He has I over 20000 messages that he has sent out and keeps them all. Normally I can retrieve lost files, folders and email. But this one is not one that I have been able to locate. Has anyone ever had this type of problem before and can you tell me or give me a clue as to what file directory to look inside of to find all this mess. I know that it has to be rather large to hold 10 000 messages. This is no joke and I really need to find a way to get them back. Is there a different type of software that I can use to try and retrieve all this mess for him. Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated. Thank you so much. Please don't laugh I already have.

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Iorana Haraharaini

Outlook Express files are in :

C:\documents and settings\*user*\local settings\application data\Identites\{********-****-****-****-************}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\inbox.dbx


*user* is the users login account name
*******etc is a long alpha-numberic folder name.

If user uses Outlook instead of outlook express the location is:
C:\documents and settings\*user*\local settings\application data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst

Thank you for your quick replay. I have looked in this place and 10000 messages are not there. It seems they have gone to who knows where. The system is such a mess and the filing is out of this world. He said today when he started to work they were there in his in box and he sent out a message and when he tried to receive his messages they all disappeared and they are gone. You can see where the system will receive his new message but they no longer post to the in box where they belong. They go who knows where and they are gone. It is not just the messgages he had in his box but all new ones that come there too. I have thought about trying to recove what is left before more are lost to enter into Outlook and set this up. He does not like this program and refuses to use it. Is there another email system out there that I can try to recover what is left of this mess and not loose anymore. I need it to interface with Outlook Express so I can import all that is left in his program to the new email program. I heard that Microsoft is creating or has created a new mail program and the name is Mail. Has anyone used this and does it interface with Outlook Express and recover all that he has in there. It is a joke. He has lost 10000 messages and there is another 30000 to transfer over. I never understood why people save all that stuff. File it and store it and get it out of the program. Any other suggestion where these messages have disappeard to. Sorry they are not where they normally belong. Thanks

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Iorana Haraharaini

Do a search for .dbx and .ibx files (search the entire drive)
you can also use Rstudio to search for lost files by file type.
Ontracks Easy Recovery Pro allows for file recovery by type.

And All the forensics programs allow for search for files by type.

I do hope you are working with a clone and not the original
drive.
The inbox file may have trunucated, did he run chkdsk?

Hello poehere,

I've found several links for you, maybe this information could be useful:
http://www.oemailrecovery.com/outlook-e ... overy.html
http://www.outlookexpressrepair.net/
Maybe developers of those software could reply for you questions, just ask them.
P.S. I've never used these listed programms.

Instead of R-studio+forensic software better to use Data Extractor + standart windows search for deleted files.
But I suppose poehere already tried to do it.

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This user was found to be affiliated with Ace Lab/PC-3000. See this topic for details.

Since I don't have Pc3000, I don't know the capabilities of DE.
But from Poehere's discription, it appears as though the Inbox is
not deleted, but more truncated.
Forensics programs will look for and find individual email files.
If DE will do this, then by all means use it.
I was just making suggestions of what I know.

Thank you everyone

The client has not done any work on this machine since I built it for him 2 years ago. He does not understand how to clean up registers, fdisk or anything on it. He thinks it should run on it's own. I can not work on the original drive due to the file problems and how slow the drive is. I had to clone the drive and I am working on it from a clone. I have tried to search for all these files by file type, tried to find the folder where they should be stored. I have searched where they should be but guess what cyber space has taken them and put them somewhere else. They are not listed under the file extension, they are not in deleted files, they are not stored anywhere I can see so far on this drive. I am not giving up yet. I know they have to be hiding somewhere out there and I am going to find them. But I also checked and it is not normal that a person can store over 50000 messages in this program. It will close down and do this to the work. Even if I do find all these messages I can't put them back insdie this program again. I will look at the mail programs that you have found and see if they will be better for him to use. He has a mailing list of 4500 people that he sends to. I sure would hate to have to try and create this all over again. I need a program that will allow me to import this mess into it. This one is a first for me. 30 years and I have never seen anyone do this before. I tried to restore his system and that took over 2 hours because he has never cleaned this up either. I think that my headache on this computer is just starting and the best bet for me is to fomat it and make a good working copy of all that I have cloned and reload this system. I do belive it will be faster than looking inside cyber space for all this mess. But before I make this decission I have to find all these files.

Any more idea? Still looking for 10000 email messages/

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Iorana Haraharaini

Outlook Express will commonly ask if the person wants to archive old messages when they have a lot. Usually this is fine, but sometime the process fails and the old dbx files get put in the recycle bin.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Thank you for the great information. I should try and search the deleted file bin for his messages. I tried the recycle bin and there is nothing in there. I think that his messages are over written on top of each other. I have found some messges but they are full of garbage and very hard to read and to understand. It looks like maybe they are writting on top of each other

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Iorana Haraharaini

Download DBXtract.exe from the web (free). You can search the entire disk for individual emails.