Mac Forum / Applications / Outlook Express / October 2007

When I closed Outlook Express 6 last night everything was working fine. When
I opened Outlook Express this morning all my mail had disappeared and outlook
express had rebuilt itself as new although there wasn't any welcoming
messages like when it is first installed.
It doesn't seem like a new identity because the message rules are still
there. Address book is there too. There is no other identity either - only
the one there now. I have looked in where Microsoft stores the messages but
there is only the new folders there. I have also done a search on the whole
computer and the only "*.dbx" files are those from the new folders. So I have
lost about 40 folders with all my mail from the past few years.
My last backup was done about 8 months ago so I can retrieve from them but I
am still wondering what could have caused the program to have done this and
is it possible the messages are still on the computer under a different file
extension.
Would appreciate any comments.
Sue