-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Outlook Express Backup 6.5

Ah, NOW we're talkin'!

Every installation of Windows will create a unique (random) alphanumeric 
string for use by OE's "Main Identity".  Even if you use the same 
installation source CD on the same exact system with no hardware changes in 
between, this string will change from one install to the next.

In XP, open up Windows Explorer or My Computer and go to "C:\Documents and 
Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities" and you'll 
see at least one such string as the name of a subfolder.  If you find two 
such strings, you're looking at one that was created during the actual 
installation of Windows and one from a previous Windows install that was 
'restored' from your backups.

To figure out which one is the Main Identity that's actually used by OE in 
this Windows installation, open up Regedit and look inside the 
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities" key.  Note that this only shows you the 
identity in use by the current user.  If you have more than one user on your 
system, there will be more of these found under the other user's Documents 
and Settings folder area as well as other parts of the registry.  Once you 
see which of the alphanumeric strings are the real one, you'll know where 
all of your 'in use' DBX files reside and can take steps to add any others 
that you want to be able to access from within OE.



Restoring unused DBX files:
Note: Do NOT skip any steps.  They are ALL important

To restore messages currently contained inside an unused DBX file (one you 
found somewhere other than the main DBX store folder), open OE, create a new 
folder and give it a unique name.  If the DBX file you wish to restore is 
called "Inbox.dbx", name the new OE folder something like "Inbox1".  Once 
the new folder is created, select it to force the creation of a new 
"Inbox1.dbx" file in your hard drive's DBX store folder.  Then, click on ANY 
other folder to release that one from use.

Go back to Explorer and change the name of the unused DBX file to 
Inbox1.dbx.  Next, Move it to the hard drive's DBX store folder and answer 
Yes when asked if you wish to overwrite the one already there.  The one 
already there will only be about 59k, which shows you that it contains no 
messages.

Go back into OE and click on that new folder again and you'll see all of 
those messages appear.

Rinse and repeat as necessary.

Peace,
Gman

"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don101" <don101@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2008 6:48 PM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: Outlook Express Backup 6.5


> Hi Wally,
>
> The problem was... I restored to my laptop.  and everything worked,
> but no dbx files to be found.  It now turns out that what it did was
> to create a second identity when it did the backup and then restored
> it to a second identity but also put two copies of the dbx files in
> two different locations on the computer AND as it turns out, put them
> in a second identity in a second identities store folder.  No wonder I
> couldn't find anything.
>
> It named the second identity Main Identity.  I'm surprised that did
> not conflict with the Main Identity which is/was also called Main
> Identity.  And they made the second Main Identity the Main Identity
> and didn't tell me they had switched identities.  Once I figured out
> which Main Identity was the Main Identity I was able to find the dbx
> files.
>
> Now I need to figure out how to move everything back in ONE identity.
>
> Don 

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