Member Avatar for Easter Bunny

good day,

i upgraded a pc from virus 98 to xp pro and i'm stuck with a freaking outlook express that doesn't work. if you open it, it says computer is out of memory or disk is full. the error number (i'm assuming it's the error number) is "0x80012ce, 3". after that, it says that outlook express can't start because msoe.dll could not be initialized.

i've gone through the web and the only advice i could find was that the .dbx files are read only, but that didn't help. they were on archive, however, the outlook express folder they're in is read only and can't be changed. i've removed outlook express from "add remove windows components" and then reinstalled it, but that didn't help. can't find a download for a newer version of internet explorer.

i tried importing the messages on my pc and they all come in. i've installed outlook 2000 on that pc and tried to import it, but it comes up with this message:

"unable to open outlook express message store".

and trying to open ingrid.wab i get:

"appears to be corrupt and cannot be used".

i don't know what to do anymore. i've spent hours on this and all i can think of is let her use outlook or install thunderbird. :cry:

thanks for any help you guys can give. i'm off to browse the java forum...

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by wharden

Dani AI

Generated

A short, practical recovery checklist and a few things that were missing from the replies here (thread started by ). The mail-only workaround that ended up working (installing Outlook) is fine for sending/receiving, but the remaining problems are usually: a damaged Outlook Express store index (Folders.dbx), corrupt individual .dbx files, or a damaged Windows Address Book (.wab). The steps below preserve everything first, then fix in-place so addresses and messages can be recovered reliably.

  1. Back up the store and WAB before you touch anything. Find the OE Store Folder from Tools → Options → Maintenance → Store Folder, and copy that entire folder plus the Address Book (.wab) to an external drive (show hidden files to see them). This preserves everything if a repair step goes wrong. Find OE store folder instructions. (learn.microsoft.com)

  2. If OE won’t start because the message store is damaged, force OE to rebuild its index: with OE closed, move/rename Folders.dbx (for example to Folders.old) so OE will recreate it on start — this usually allows OE to open and lets you drag messages back into folders. To import a single .dbx, copy that .dbx into the Store folder, rename Folders.dbx to Folders.old, and then start OE; the copied file appears as a folder. If individual .dbx files are corrupt, use a DBX extraction tool (DBXtract/DBXpress) to extract .eml files before attempting import. [Import a single .dbx / DBX recovery notes]. (support.microsoft.com)

  3. Address-book recovery (.wab): copy the .wab to your Desktop, delete or rename the original in the Address Book folder, start OE (it builds a new empty WAB) and use File → Import → Address Book to import the copied .wab. If OE can’t open the WAB you can import the .wab into other mail apps (Windows Contacts / Windows Mail / Postbox) then export to CSV and re-import to your preferred client. [WAB backup/import steps]. (support.microsoft.com)

Final tips: compact folders while offline, keep single DBX files reasonably small, and disable AV mail‑scanning while compacting. Always work on copies; don’t overwrite originals until you confirm recovery. (learn.microsoft.com)

Member Avatar for Easter Bunny

nevermind, got it sorted, but couldn't get the addresses. lady not too upset about it. she did slap me around and kick me when i fell on the ground, but she said it was ok. :)

Member Avatar for wharden

How did you get around this?

Member Avatar for Easter Bunny

outlook or outlook express?

for outlook express i gave up and installed outlook. if it's not the latest version, then you can fix the msoe.dll problem by installing the latest version of internet explorer.

for the outlook problem:

the message store it's moaning about, is like a storage place on the internet somewhere(that's how i understand it). if you go to "tools" -> "email accounts" -> "add a new directory or address book" -> "additional address books". pick whichever one grabs you. don't think there's much of a difference between outlook- and personal address book. think i took outlook address book. then you can go do that again and this time select "view or change existing directories or address books" and remove the internet directory. not sure what they call it. i'll go look for the website i found the tips on.

hope i helped. ;)

Member Avatar for wharden

Thanks, the read-only got me.

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