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Outlook backup files

17 years ago

Something weird is going on here and I'm hoping someone can help me with this. I went to the Recycle bin to empty it today and noticed I had a backup file of every one of my email folders in the recycle bin. I did not put them there. They were from the last several days on up through yesterday. The message that came up was this; C/Windows/Application

Data/Identities, then a looong number, then Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express

Type Bak File

I'm running W XP with IE7. I did a full system Norton scan plus a Ad Aware scan and came up clean. Does anyone have any idea what could have caused this? Should I leave the files there or restore them or just delete them? Appreciate any help! Ida

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Comments (5)

mikie_gw
17 years ago
We must share some of the same windows updates. I have it too,, .bak files dated 12/24 for the most part, both OE and Newsgroups. So I went snooping for the why.

It was one of the new microsoft updates that started doing that for OE, I guess Outlook too.
You might recall seeing a windows system popup asking if you want to save space by compacting your mail database's ?

When you said OK - It's backed up all your .dbx files to the recycle bin in case something goes kafluie when compacting those files - Which could cause you to lose your messages.

You might want to search with the advanced feature checked for one of the main file names like inbox.* and see if it turns up in addition to inbox.bak - hopefully with a file of approx same size probablfy named inbox.dbx . before you clear your recycle bin.
idaf
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks Mikie! That is probably exactly what happened...I'm always getting these compact popups. But this is the first time I have noticed these backup files in my recycle bin. Probably a quirk of this new IE7 that I got without asking! Just another of those update things. One of these days, my computer will be full of nothing but updates! All my files are intact in my email folders, so I guess all is well. Other family members use my computer, so I keep all my important numbers and passwords in folders, and I could just imagine them being snooped in. Thanks again! Ida
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jane__ny
17 years ago
Glad for this post as I never even look in Recycle. I have it emptied automatically when I do CCleaner and disk clean-up. So far all my Outlook files are intact, but it's good to know that this is going on.
That's what makes reading this forum so helpful.
Thanks,
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ritaotay
17 years ago
Ida, it had to have been one of the Windows updates but it wasn't the one for I.E. 7... I haven't installed it yet and I get the .bak files in my Recycle Bin every time I tell Outlook Express to compress the folders... I think someone down at MS is trying to drive us batty with all these little garbage thingies that really aren't doing anything important... LOL

Rita
laytia
17 years ago
Hi
So is it safe to delete these bak files from the recycle bin?
Many thanks for any help.

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