Restoring *.dbx files

[Gary Smith]

I had a partial failure of my hard drive. I was able to find and save my
outlook .dbx files, which have and identity number. I reinstalled outlook on
a new hard drive and now I cannot correctly load the .dbx files which are
stored in a large file with an identity number. How do I restore outlook
indentity folders?

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Try posting this in an Outlook Express news group - this is not one of them.
Outlook is a part of Microsoft Office and is what this group supports.
Outlook Express is a part of Internet Explorer and has its own news groups.

You can also find some good Outlook Express information here:

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Gary Smith asked:

| I had a partial failure of my hard drive. I was able to find and
| save my outlook .dbx files, which have and identity number. I
| reinstalled outlook on a new hard drive and now I cannot correctly
| load the .dbx files which are stored in a large file with an identity
| number. How do I restore outlook indentity folders?

 

[Gary Smith]

I don't use Outlook Express and maybe this is the source of my problem.
I use Outlook for my e-mail and I searched using .dbx and stored the
identity file that was found. This file has a size of 18.7MB so I am sure it
is the right file. I am trying to restore it back into Outlook not Outlook
express.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Outlook doesn't use dbx-files and identities. It uses pst-files and mail
profiles. See;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm
and
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
I don't use Outlook Express and maybe this is the source of my problem.
I use Outlook for my e-mail and I searched using .dbx and stored the
identity file that was found. This file has a size of 18.7MB so I am sure it
is the right file. I am trying to restore it back into Outlook not Outlook
express.

 

[Gary Smith]

Thanks for your help and prompt replies. I understand what you are
saying. I haven't figured out what has happened because when I look at the
date modified on the.dbx files they are when I last used outlook!

 

[Ann]

I understand this is not where you're supposed to get this answer, but I've
done this many times. You start up Outlook Express on your new hard drive
and it will create an identity file folder and tiny .dbx files inside that
have no info. they will be called like inbox.dbx, outbox.dbx, etc.

you go to your old ones that have the data in them, and replace the new ones
created with the old ones. forget your old identity number folder. just
take the .dbx files inside of it and copy them to the new one. each
installation creates a different unique identity number. once you have the
new ones in the correct file, next time you open OE, it will recognize all
the folders.

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP P/I]]

Outlook uses Outlook Express to read Newsgroups; if you use News from within
Outlook and did so the last time you used Outlook, the .DBX files OE created
for those Newsgroups would have a modified date just as you describe.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com

 

[Gary Smith]

Thanks. That explains what has happened as I do use OE for the
newsgroups.