Lost Outlook Express Files

Can anyone help me here - I am not very computer literate about a lot of
things and listened to some friends. I was getting an error message 4359
whenever I tried to launch my outlook express program. My friends said to
trash the identity preferences and try again. Well, outlook express opened
and all my files, address book etc were gone. Are they anywhere to be
found? I never backed up like I should have of course. Can someone email
me at hdhdion.TakeThisOut@earthlink.net if they know how I can remedy this?

Hi Deborah,

Do you know exactly which file(s) you trashed? Was it only the Preferences
file or did you also trash the Database file (or others)? If it was the
Preferences file only, then all your data is still on the hard drive
somewhere.

Go to HD/Documents/Microsoft User Data [MUD]/Identities. That's where your
OE identities *should* be stored. Do you see more than one Identity folder
there? You will see Main Identity for sure. Is there another? If so,
that's your old OE identity. Rename Main Identity to (for instance) Blank
Identity and rename the other folder Main Identity. Open OE. Are all your
messages, etc., there? If so, you can trash Blank Identity.

If you don't find a second Identity folder in the MUD, look in
HD/Applications (Mac OS 9)/Outlook Express 5 Folder. If that doesn't work,
search your HD for any folders called Identities or Main Identity. See what
turns up. It's there somewhere. When you find it, follow the procedure
above to restore it to its original name and location.

Note: I'm assuming you don't have Office 2001 or Office 2004. If you do,
do *not* mess with anything inside the Office 2001 Identities or the Office
2004 Identities folders. There will be Main Identity folders inside those
as well, but they're not what you want.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>



On 3/19/06 5:43 PM, in article C04348B4.42%hdhdion@earthlink.net, "Deborah
Dion" <hdhdion RemoveThis @earthlink.net> wrote:

> Can anyone help me here - I am not very computer literate about a lot of
> things and listened to some friends. I was getting an error message 4359
> whenever I tried to launch my outlook express program. My friends said to
> trash the identity preferences and try again. Well, outlook express opened
> and all my files, address book etc were gone. Are they anywhere to be
> found? I never backed up like I should have of course. Can someone email
> me at hdhdion RemoveThis @earthlink.net if they know how I can remedy this?
>
>