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Have lost numerous Outlook Express emails


conceptualclarity

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I'm trying to wind down my days on my old XP. I had its original hard drive die. I replaced it with a refurbished one and got professional recovery from DriveSavers. On their advice I'm backing up the 500 GB Touro hard drive they sent me with the recovered data (which I've whittled down to about 65 GB or so) and about 35 GB more I've added.

I'm trying to back up all that 100 GB of data to a 128 GB Lexar flash drive I got for $40. To copy the files I had to get a special freeware, Unstoppable Copier. It was going on for many hours yesterday. My system got pretty tight, and I had a very difficult shutdown of Outlook Express. Then about an hour later while closing down Maxthon browser I got a blue screen at the worst of times meaning I'd have to start all over on the backup.

 

After the blue screen, after the next reboot I discovered a huge amount of fresh emails that had already downloaded to my Inbox were gone. I called my cable company and retrieved a fair number from their server, but an estimated 60 or so were not retrieved. There may have been valuable personal messages or highly valuable messages of another nature. Could they still be somewhere on my computer, maybe in Inbox.dbx? Do you think I could hunt them down with one of those data recovery softwares that are so abundant? If so which one has good tech support as well as being an effective program?

 

 

 

Computer:      Dell System B3 Desktop

CPU:           Intel Pentium 4-2667 (Northwood, D1)
               2666 MHz (20.00x133.3) @ 2657 MHz (20.00x132.9)
Motherboard:   DELL 0G1548
Chipset:       Intel 845GEV (Brookdale-GEV) + ICH4
Memory:        2048 MBytes @ 166 MHz, 2.5-3-3-7
               - 1024 MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM - Kingston K
Graphics:      Intel 82845G/GL/GV Graphics Controller [DELL]
               Intel i845G(L) Integrated, 64 MB 
Drive:         ST380011A, 78.1 GB, E-IDE (ATA-6)
Drive:         HGST HTS545050A7E380, 488.4 GB, Serial ATA 3Gb/s <-> USB
Drive:         SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S, CD-R Writer
Sound:         Creative Technology SB Live! Series Audio Processor
Network:       RealTek Semiconductor RTL8139 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC [A/B/C]
Network:       Broadcom 4401 10/100 Integrated Controller
OS:            Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Build 2600 SP3
 
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I don't have specific OE recovery software suggestions. You can try looking at the inbox file with a hex editor. I'm not sure, but it may be plain text. Besides that, in the future, maybe try an email client that stores each email as a separate file.

I wouldn't consider flash drives to be good for long term backup. If you want it to last for years, use optical media or a removable HDD.

Another thing, why restart the whole backup? Just backup a directory at a time.

Edited by shae
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I discovered a huge amount of fresh emails that had already downloaded to my Inbox were gone....

[...]

maybe in Inbox.dbx?

Where do you see them missing if not from the inbox.dbx? (unless you moved them to an other folder).

Check the dates and times of the dbx files. Latest handled mails should be in the latest dbx file.

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I and many of my clients use GMail.  When GMail is sent to your computer, it can be deleted from your InBox at GMail, but is moved to the Deleted Items folder.  I can always go back in there and retreve any mail that's been lost in my own PC.

 

Get a 1TB drive and CLONE your old drive to the new one.  With any decent cloning program, that won't take too long and then you're covered, if that old drive shoots craps.  I make a clone of my main HD once a week, just in case my main drive takes a hike.  It's only one year old, but ya jus never know when an HD will quit working.  Stuff happens!

 

Good Luck and Happy Holidays!

 

B)

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