# Compact e-mail Outlook Express



## bats (Jan 15, 2003)

When you delete a letter from the "Deleted Items " folder the letter is still there ! It is just that you cannot see it anymore. This has something to do with data bases and removing entries from the index file. ( perhaps someone with more teck knowledge could explain it further).
If you follow File >Folder>Compact all folders , this will permanently remove deleted letters from the hard drive making Outlook run faster and free up disk space. In my case I recovered 44mb of space.

Note While this process is running do not interupt it! You may also want to work off line so as no New Mail arrives during this time.
CHEERS


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## aarhus2004 (Jan 10, 2004)

Hi, bats,

Yep, well worth compacting those .dbx files. I have had occasion to look at them using Notepad to retrieve an address or whatever, Always surprised by what I can read - nothing to do with e-mail as far as I know!

I wonder how you know how much space you saved?

Cheers.


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## bats (Jan 15, 2003)

I look at defrag before and after I did the compact. I wonder if you can look at available space under My Computer before performing this procedure as well?


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## aarhus2004 (Jan 10, 2004)

Probably bats. Even in a short space of time, though, things change. I guess you meant scandisk not defrag?

There are a couple (or more) tools (freeware) available which tell us precisely what space ( and where it is) we have remaining. I currently have this one:

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml


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## bats (Jan 15, 2003)

aarhus2004 Thanks for the link.
To reply to your point I did in fact use defrag.when the program is started it states the amount of "free space " in MB's and the % free space. After compacting I merely looked at it again.


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## aarhus2004 (Jan 10, 2004)

Hello bats,

Let me guess - you have WinXP?


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## bats (Jan 15, 2003)

Hello aarhus2004 I have windows 2000 pro. I have tried to attach a word doc that shows the defrag pane. When I click the "manage attachments" button the window opens up but closes within 3 seconds . Perhaps someone could tell me if I need to change some settings Thanks.


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## PezKat (Jan 18, 2005)

You can also just look at the size of the .dbx files in Explorer to see the size change. (I have Win98, & mine are under Windows\Applications\Microsoft\Outlook Express\.) I recently did this and reduced my entire Mailbox by one third, and the Deleted Items folder from over 40,000 kb to about 200! (Had been trying to clear stuff out to reduce size before backing up, and kept checking the .dbx file, which got bigger instead of smaller! Very freaky before I figured it out, lol!)


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## aarhus2004 (Jan 10, 2004)

Hello,

I have no problem with the Manage Attachment option. The fact that yours closes in 3 secs, or did do so, may be or might have been a TSG server problem. There have some lately. Most notably from my point of view the Spell Check which on testing now is still not available. Upgrades are in process though.


As I am sure you know there are 'things' you cannot upload and the size of an attachment is relevant too. Copy and Paste is a useful option.

Perhaps you will find this post and confirm that the problem still exists for you. If that is the case a post in 'Software' might be the way to go, or in Win2000.

Cheers, bats.


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## bats (Jan 15, 2003)

Yes the management attachments opens a window but it still closes in 3 seconds. I will post to the windows 2000 form . thanks again.


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