Recover Accidentally Deleted Emails from Outlook Express

Outlook Express (OE) stores all emails in DBX files. For each mailbox and each newsgroup in Outlook Express, there is one specific DBX file with the extension .dbx. This file stores the messages and additional information for fast access to read emails from them. Each folder in Outlook Express has its own file with the extension of .dbx for mails related to inbox, outbox etc.

All your Outlook Express mail folders, messages, and subscribed newsgroups, are stored in one folder called the store root, or store root folder, in at least one place in Outlook Express, in the Store root directory. It’s default location is

C:\Windows\Application Data\Outlook Express\{GUID}
or
C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{GUID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

where, {GUID} is the Global Unique IDentifier, used to specify an Identity. Depending on your operating system and upgrade history, your store folder might be located elsewhere.

You might have intentionally or accidentally deleted emails from your mailbox in Outlook Express and would have later realized, that you have deleted some vital emails. If you want to recover those lost emails, immediately exit Outlook Express, and avoid compacting the email folders.

What happens when emails get deleted in a .dbx file?

When emails are deleted, they are not removed from the .dbx file, instead the emails still exist inside the .dbx file,but the disk space occupied by them, is marked as free space. Outlook Express tries to remove these deleted emails physically from time to time, using the Compact feature.

The Compact option ensures that the deleted emails get wiped off completely, making them irrecoverable, which in turn speeds-up Outlook Express. Every 100 times you close Outlook Express, you are asked to start the Compact process. This is the reason why we suggest, that you do not compact the email folders after deletion.

Remo Recover Outlook Express Software, is a tool designed for recovering deleted Outlook Express e-mail messages from any “dbx” archive, where Outlook Express stores folders containing all your e-mails. It’s interactive user interface,makes email recovery, a hassle free task.Try it Now!

Steps to be followed to recover deleted emails from Outlook Express:

Follow the simple steps given below, to recover all your deleted emails successfully.

Launch the software, either by double clicking the desktop shortcut, or by selecting the icon from the Programs list in the Start menu. The Main window pops up, as shown in Figure a.

Figure a: Main window

Click on the button, to select the .dbx file that contains the lost/deleted e-mails. The software displays all identities of Outlook Express, and lists all the .dbx files corresponding to each identity.

Select the identity which contains the corrupted .dbx files i.e., the .dbx file which contains the deleted emails. The software displays all the .dbx files from the selected identity, as shown in Figure b.

Figure b: Select Source file to repair

Select the .dbx file that contains the lost or deleted e-mails, and click on the button. As you click on the Next button, a new window is displayed, as shown in Figure c. The window provides an option to select the destination drive, onto which you want to save the data.

Figure c: Select destination drive

Click on the button to select the destination drive to save the recovered data. The software provides an option to save the recovered data in a compressed format. If this option is required, select the Compress recovered data option, and click on the button to proceed.

As soon as you click on the OK button, the software starts the repair process, on the selected .dbx file.The software locates the lost/deleted e-mails, and recovers all found e-mails into a new folder by name “xxxx recoveredx” in the selected destination drive. All the found e-mails, will be recovered in .eml format.

After recovery of the lost/deleted emails, you can import these emails(.eml files) into Outlook Express folders in the Outlook Express program, or just double click the .eml files to read them.

Importing e-mails.

However, if you want to import the emails to Outlook Express, you just need to select the emails you wish to import, and drag and drop them to a specified Outlook Express folder, as shown in Figure d.

Figure d: Drag and Drop process

Note: You can even select multiple .dbx files for repair. In that case, all the recovered e-mails will be restored into their respective folders, in a new folder by name “Recovered dbxX”, in the selected destination drive.