On many computers, particularly those using FAT file systems (i.e. Windows 95/98/ME and some installations of Windows NT/2000/XP/2003), the mail store files (and the Outlook Express registry information) can be damaged if Outlook Express fails to shut down properly. This can cause Outlook Express to fail to start. It can also cause emails to disappear from your folders. Hundreds or even thousands of Outlook Express files are corrupted or damaged every day by the Windows operating system.

While some emails can never be recovered because they are irreparably damaged, many can be extracted from the damaged files. ScanDBX will put those emails in a folder named "Recovered Email" on your desktop. You can then drag and drop these emails back into your fixed folders in Outlook Express.

ScanDBX is also designed to detect other issues with your Outlook Express files, including:

• Damaged or corrupted mail store files
• Damaged or incomplete Windows Registry settings for Outlook Express
• Missing file path elements or directories
• Read-only mail store files
• Some types of damage to your Outlook Express configuration

ScanDBX scans through your mail store files looking for errors in the stored data. It then searches the files for any emails (or news messages) which would be lost due to damage. Needless to say, this can be a very time consuming task if you have large mail store files.

Once the scan is complete, ScanDBX will ask you to choose if you want to try to repair the files. If you choose to repair the files, the software will back up your mail store files and then begin repairing them. ScanDBX will remove any damaged data from your files, which could result in email messages being lost. Those messages which can be saved will be saved in a directory named "Recovered Email" on your desktop. The recovered email files can be dragged and dropped back into Outlook Express. When it has completed, ScanDBX will notify you and you can start working with Outlook Express again.

ScanDBX can be memory intensive when it is used to fix large email files. Although we have put a lot of effort into reducing the memory load, it still can be high. If your computer has a small amount of memory, this will result in slower performance due to the operating system using the hard drive for memory storage. In our tests involving a 2 GB file on a modern computer (AMD 2000+ with 1 GB of RAM), a repair took about 15 minutes and used a maximum of about 450 MB of RAM.

Click here for the ScanDBX revision history.