My mom's old HD on her old computer crashed, and one of her clients said they could recover the data for her. She got a cd with .dbx files on it, and the files were labeled something like "Recovered_outlook_express_1.dbx" all the way up to like 150.

So i assumed they used some program like "Outlook Express Recovery Tool" or "Easy Outlook Express Repair" to obtain these files from the documents and settings\user\local files\application\identities\really long number etc etc... or whereever express puts its .dbx files.

From my little experience with Outlook Express i know it stores its messages/folders in .dbx files named Drafts.dbx, Inbox.dbx, Outbox.dbx etc. So i'm wondering why the recovery program would split those files into 150+ .dbx files.

My question is how can i open/recombine those 150+ .dbx files in express or another program so she can get her old messages back. I'm not a big fan of Outlook Express, and I only had enough time yesterday to look what was on the CD so i haven't messed around with it much. Any suggestions?

I have Foxpro at work, and i know it reads .dbx files. Could i just open them all in that?

8/9/2007 9:33:14 AM

In IE, each DBX corresponds to a folder...but thats just how they're stored, I think you can import them however you want.

If you open up IE, and import those DBX files, it should allow you to choose where those messages will be imported...which folder they'll go into. so it'l take a while to process through each file, but you should be import them just fine. i'd probably pull all of them into the inbox, and then put them into subfolders like sent (using sorting) or whatever after the initial import.

8/9/2007 9:47:35 AM

Import each .dbx file into Outlook Express? The thing is she has lots of folders, and she wants to keep all her old emails in thier respective folders. I messed around with Outlook Express yesterday on her new computer, and it wouldn't let me import those .dbx files, but i'll try again at lunch. It seems like the Recovery_Outlook_express_xx.dbx files are simply a broken up database of her original .dbx folder files. I don't know why there's 150+ of them though. I guess she wants to be able to open each folder and have access to all the emails that way, rather then importing them all into Outlook (what she uses now).

[Edited on August 9, 2007 at 10:04 AM. Reason : .]

8/9/2007 9:58:50 AM

can you get your hands on the orig hard drive? if so try and grab the orig files yourself.

and what she wants may not be possible at this point...teach her how to create backups (or set it up for her) to avoid these problems in the future.

and if they're actual .dbx files, you should be able to import them. are you following the right process to do it? if so, what error messages are you getting?

8/9/2007 10:03:28 AM

Quote :

"can you get your hands on the orig hard drive? if so try and grab the orig files yourself."

Heh. I'm not up to par on HD recovery so i couldn't do too much. It would recognize the drive, but i wasn't able to run any HD tests on it, and it would only show a folder tree but not open any folders. After playing around with it for a while i took it apart and added the magnets to my magnet collection. The pallets are fun to toss around too.

Quote :

"and what she wants may not be possible at this point...teach her how to create backups (or set it up for her) to avoid these problems in the future."

She has 2 external WD HDs and shes been backing up everything else (photos, invoices, etc) multiple times. The new computer i built for her has a couple HDs in addition to her 2 externals so i got her into the habit of backing up stuff. I was actually about to back up her old emails, then her old PC crashed (the mobo got fried i believe, but it also crashed the HD).

Quote :

"and if they're actual .dbx files, you should be able to import them. are you following the right process to do it? if so, what error messages are you getting?"

I'll try them again after work, or at lunch and report back. The files aren't THAT important, or else i wouldn't have taken the HD apart. So if i can't recover them it's not that big a deal. She just said get the emails if i could. Would FoxPro work? I use it here at work sometimes, and it might be able to open all the .dbx files.

[Edited on August 9, 2007 at 10:13 AM. Reason : .]

8/9/2007 10:11:47 AM