Outlook Express Contact List is Missing

[tomsamek]

Help! I am running win98e

My machine was previously used by another user in my office. They used Outlook--not Outlook Express.

I read the related posting: thread 605-754840 and the valuable help of smah.

Until today, I was using Outlook express on this machine for e-mail.

I had two identities on Outlook Express. Everything worked.

Today, I decided to switch to Outlook. I imported all my stuff into Outlook--this worked fine. Including my contact list.

But when I sent messages some were received others just disappeared without any evidence. Also, there were message files from the previous user that I didn't want. I ran the archive utility. And , I deleted the Outlook PST file and started over. This time it failed to import my addresses. So I deleted the new PST file that I created and decided to go back to Outlook Express and forget about Outlook.

When I deleted the PST file, it was too big for the deleted items folder. So, it is gone perminently.

Now, Outlook Express does not allow me to send e-mails. Says that the "message cannot be created". A message came up saying that I need to reinstall Outlook Express and that the contact list could not be opened.

I still receive e-mail without problems (in Outlook Express).

Also, the contact file (.wad) is GONE from the Outlook Express directory. I never touched any files related to Outlook Express. Does the Outlook import utility screw around with the data files of OTHER programs, e.g. Outlook Express? This is very counterintuitive for me. It would seem that user's data is the critical thing that a programmer should be concerned about!!!

What happened? Can I retrieve my contacts or are they now perminently gone?

What is the best course of action to get back up and running?

 

[tomsamek]

Hello:

I've done some analysis. My diagnosis is that the system had been setup to share the address book with Outlook, and, when I deleted the PST file, I deleted all my addresses that I had entered from Outlook Express.

Is this correct?
Hence there is no recovery (since I did not backup the otherwise unused PST).

Now Outlook Express does not work. Can't open messages or create outgoing mail.

If I uninstall, will I lose all my data?

 

[BrianLW]

Save your *.dbx files to CD or another drive. These files contain the messages and such for OE.

 

[smah]

Have a look at this MSKB article....It sounds like it may fit your situation

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;191946&Product=oex.

Unfortunately, if your analysis is correct, you're probably out of luck for retrieving the old stuff. You could search for other *.pst files - maybe someone created a backup or duplicate at some point.

To get OE running again, the easiest thing may be to do a repair installation of Internet Explorer. This can be done from Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs.