Each folder stored on your hard disk in OE is a single file
Same name as the folder with extension .dbx
Demonstrate location deep within Documents and Setting Folder
Hidden by default because opening and editing might corrupt
May vary from slow response to crashing
May get error message “Msimn caused an exception C0000006h in module Directdb.dll.
The message could not be sent. There is not enough Disk space.”
Problem may respond to compaction
Click File menu; click Work Offline; in Folder list click Outlook Express; click View menu;
clear checkbox of “Folder List”; click File menu; point to Folder and click Compact All Folders
(may take several minutes). Demonstrate. If error recurs, close OE; re-open OE; repeat process.
If still present, restart PC and go through entire process again.
If compacting does not work, remove all messages out of damaged folder (demonstrate); close OE;
delete associated DBX file for that folder. If folder can not be opened, move damaged DBX file out
of the Store Folder into a newly created folder (used to recover most messages from the corrupt file)
With severe corruption OE no longer recognizes that the DBX files exits. If however the corrupt
file is Inbox.dbx, Outlook Express will sometimes create a new one and append a number to its
name, such as Inbox(1).dbx. If this happens when you open the Inbox, you will see your Inbox
messages disappear right before your very eyes!
With special folder corruption, first sign = it stops working
Give examples
With Inbox, may see empty folder or new messages not downloaded or may create a new DBX file i.e.
Inbox(1).dbx
With Sent Items or Outbox, might see OE crash with error message
If the Inbox is corrupt, Outlook Express might not start, but in most cases it will do so by creating a new
DBX file named Inbox(1).dbx.
Compacting often fixes damage; if not need a new DBX file for damaged one
1. If possible, drag all messages in the non-working folder into another folder you create just for
this purpose. You can create a folder by pointing to Folder on the File menu, and then clicking
New folder (or by pressing Ctrl+Shift- E).
2. Close Outlook Express.
3. Open your Store Folder in Windows Explorer.
4. Delete (or rename) the DBX file associated with the non-working folder. For example, "Sent
Items.dbx" or "Deleted Items.dbx" or "Drafts.dbx". Since these are default folders, new DBX
files will be created automatically for the special folders when you restart Outlook Express.
Master index of Store Folder
With corruption, may completely stop with error messages e.g. “Outlook Express could not be started
because Msoe.dll could not be initialized. Outlook Express may not be installed correctly.”
Treatment: delete corrupt file (last resort), allowing OE to start and rebuild a new one i.e. re-indexing
all files in Store
To replace:
1. Re-create your mail folder hierarchy by dragging folders into place in the Folder list. Note that
any folder you have created to group sub-folders but that does not itself contain messages will not
appear in the Folder list and so must be created again.
2. Re-create your mail folder hierarchy by dragging folders into place in the Folder list. Note that
any folder you have created to group sub-folders but that does not itself contain messages will
not appear in the Folder list and so must be created again.
3. Re-download the list of newsgroups from each news account.
4. Reset your subscribed newsgroups and download messages again.
5. Reset synchronization options on IMAP and newsgroup folders.
6. Edit any message rule that moves or copies messages to folders other than the Inbox.
Single Folder: File menu; click Compact (Any time you make large changes to any Folder)
Folders.dbx (crucial index of Store Folder) File menu; click Compact All Folders
Paradoxical that AV program itself is the cause!
Disable scan incoming or outgoing e-mail messages; demonstrate in AVG
Every AV program does a system scan that runs in background during startup
If you receive a virus in an attachment, OE extracts it and puts it in Temporary Internet Files where
it is taken care of
Ironic that compacting itself may cause corruption
Situation prior to SP2 i.e. background compaction if OE inactive for few minutes = dangerous
With SP2 compaction after open & close OE 100 times and not in background
Do not cancel compaction, use or turn off PC, use Standby mode until finished
Best results when you manually compact regularly e.g. weekly or bi-weekly
If you do not have SP2:
1. Click Options on the Outlook Express Tools menu.
2. Click the Maintenance tab.
3. Clear the checkbox for "Compact messages automatically in the background".
4. Click OK
Keep all Folders small to minimize risk! Especially Inbox (changes the most)
Do not forget Sent Folder e.g. >2000 messages
In the event one of your mail folder's DBX file suffers from corruption that is not cured by compacting
all folders, there is hope for recovering the messages it contains.
1. Close Outlook Express immediately.
2. In Windows Explorer, navigate to your Store Folder and move the damaged DBX file into a new
folder you create.
3. Copy the latest backup of the DBX file from your backup media into the Store Folder. If you are
copying from a CD-ROM, verify the copy is not set as 'read-only' by right-clicking on the DBX file
and clicking Properties.
4. Restart Outlook Express.
5. Compact all folders as described earlier.
In the unfortunate event you do not have a backup that contains the messages you need, it is possible
to recover messages from a corrupt DBX file. Unfortunately there is no built-in recovery tool in
Outlook Express to do this. There is, however, a very inexpensive third-party tool called DBXtract
that could possibly recover these messages.. It was written by Steve Cochran, a Microsoft MVP for
Outlook Express for many years. You can purchase and download DBXtract at Steve's
If you follow the ten stops outlined here, you will greatly reduce the chances that your DBX files will
become corrupt.
1. Disable the e-mail scan in your anti-virus program.
2. If you have not installed Windows XP SP2, disable automatic background compaction.
3. Keep the Inbox as empty as possible by moving messages to other folders you create.
4. Be careful that the Sent Items folder does not grow to an unmanageable size (2,000 or so
5. messages seems a good target).
6. Compact all folders on a regular basis, such as bi-weekly, or more often
7. When compacting, do not use your computer until the process is finished.
8. Purchase a copy of DBXtract for emergency use.
9. Keep your computer and anti-virus products up to date with the latest patches.
10. Backup your entire Store Folder on a regular basis.
11. Remember that you can store important messages, or messages with large attachments,
outside of Outlook Express simply by dragging them
from the message list and dropping
them on your desktop. Then delete the original message in the message
list to keep the
DBX file smaller.