Guest Joy Posted October 8, 2007 Posted October 8, 2007 I was helping a friend with his computer today and he has something I've never seen before. His Recycle Bin is full of .bak files that seem to be from a variety of sources: Some are Outlook Express (including one that says Inbox and one that says Drafts!), but also files that he has in My Documents. Does anyone know how these would have landed up in the Recycle Bin and with a .bak extension? He's afraid to delete them in case he might list the originals.
Guest Randy Posted October 8, 2007 Posted October 8, 2007 Re: Recycle Bin Question The Outlook Express files happen when OE does a maintenance and compresses and does a backup the OE folders. It happens every 30 days on my computer. The others are also from a maintenance of some sort but can't remember the name. If everything is working in OE and he has the doc. files in My Documents then he can delete them. They are just backup files thus the .bak extension. Randy "Joy" <joymp2@bellsouth.net.NO_SPAM> wrote in message news:%235FzLKUCIHA.5360@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >I was helping a friend with his computer today and he has something I've >never seen before. His Recycle Bin is full of .bak files that seem to be >from a variety of sources: Some are Outlook Express (including one that >says Inbox and one that says Drafts!), but also files that he has in My >Documents. Does anyone know how these would have landed up in the Recycle >Bin and with a .bak extension? He's afraid to delete them in case he might >list the originals.
Guest Joy Posted October 8, 2007 Posted October 8, 2007 Re: Recycle Bin Question Thanks, Randy, but is it normal for the maintenance to put backup files in the Recycle Bin? I had never seen this before. "Randy" <cakeman47@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:L7fOi.62$Mx6.13@newsfe05.lga... > The Outlook Express files happen when OE does a maintenance and compresses > and does a backup the OE folders. It happens every 30 days on my computer. > The others are also from a maintenance of some sort but can't remember the > name. If everything is working in OE and he has the doc. files in My > Documents then he can delete them. They are just backup files thus the > .bak extension. > > Randy > > "Joy" <joymp2@bellsouth.net.NO_SPAM> wrote in message > news:%235FzLKUCIHA.5360@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >>I was helping a friend with his computer today and he has something I've >>never seen before. His Recycle Bin is full of .bak files that seem to be >>from a variety of sources: Some are Outlook Express (including one that >>says Inbox and one that says Drafts!), but also files that he has in My >>Documents. Does anyone know how these would have landed up in the Recycle >>Bin and with a .bak extension? He's afraid to delete them in case he >>might list the originals. > >
Guest Parrôtt Posted October 8, 2007 Posted October 8, 2007 Re: Recycle Bin Question "Joy" <joymp2@bellsouth.net.NO_SPAM> wrote in message news:u1JVCTVCIHA.4444@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > Thanks, Randy, but is it normal for the maintenance to put backup files in > the Recycle Bin? I had never seen this before. > > "Randy" <cakeman47@hotmail.com> wrote in message > news:L7fOi.62$Mx6.13@newsfe05.lga... >> The Outlook Express files happen when OE does a maintenance and >> compresses and does a backup the OE folders. It happens every 30 days on >> my computer. The others are also from a maintenance of some sort but >> can't remember the name. If everything is working in OE and he has the >> doc. files in My Documents then he can delete them. They are just backup >> files thus the .bak extension. >> >> Randy >> I think it's normal for the .bak files to be sent straigt to the recycle bin. It happens when OE does it to me then I use either EE or CCleaner to empty it. God Bless...
Guest Gerry Posted October 8, 2007 Posted October 8, 2007 Re: Recycle Bin Question Joy Outlook Express contains a feature, which compacts the dbx files it creates. This has been very problematic over the years and a bit over 12 months ago it changed this feature so that the system automatically compacts all dbx files when the user has closed Outlook Express 100 times. Before compacting each folder it is copied to the Recycle Bin as a bak file. If the user interupts the compacting process e.g. by switching off the computer it is likely that the dbx folder currently being compacted will corrupt and the messages therein can become irretrievable. In this situation the folder can be replaced by the copy in the Recycle Bin. If the users current Outllook Express folders are intact the Recycle Bin should be empied. Outlook Express dbx files can be quite large so emptying the Recycle Bin can be important after compacting, where there is limited free disk space. http://www.insideoe.com/ With the introduction of Vista Outlook Express has been replaced by Windows Mail which is virtually identical to Outlook Express except that the way messages are stored has been changed so that compaction is no longer necessary. -- Hope this helps. Gerry ~~~~ FCA Stourport, England Enquire, plan and execute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Joy wrote: > Thanks, Randy, but is it normal for the maintenance to put backup > files in the Recycle Bin? I had never seen this before. > > "Randy" <cakeman47@hotmail.com> wrote in message > news:L7fOi.62$Mx6.13@newsfe05.lga... >> The Outlook Express files happen when OE does a maintenance and >> compresses and does a backup the OE folders. It happens every 30 >> days on my computer. The others are also from a maintenance of some >> sort but can't remember the name. If everything is working in OE and >> he has the doc. files in My Documents then he can delete them. They >> are just backup files thus the .bak extension. >> >> Randy >> >> "Joy" <joymp2@bellsouth.net.NO_SPAM> wrote in message >> news:%235FzLKUCIHA.5360@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >>> I was helping a friend with his computer today and he has something >>> I've never seen before. His Recycle Bin is full of .bak files that >>> seem to be from a variety of sources: Some are Outlook Express >>> (including one that says Inbox and one that says Drafts!), but also >>> files that he has in My Documents. Does anyone know how these >>> would have landed up in the Recycle Bin and with a .bak extension? >>> He's afraid to delete them in case he might list the originals.
Guest Joy Posted October 8, 2007 Posted October 8, 2007 Re: Recycle Bin Question Gerry, Thank you so very much for this detailed explanation! I had heard about the "every 100 times" of at least asking about compacting. I had something strange in the past (more than once), where when I "let" it compact when it asked, some of the contents of the lower (alphabetically) folders in my list of personal folders were deleted! Wish I had known then that I could find them doing a current back of my OE - I use an excellent program called Express Assist). "Gerry" <gerry@nospam.com> wrote in message news:e8DKI4ZCIHA.4236@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > Joy > > Outlook Express contains a feature, which compacts the dbx files it > creates. This has been very problematic over the years and a bit over 12 > months ago it changed this feature so that the system automatically > compacts all dbx files when the user has closed Outlook Express 100 times. > Before compacting each folder it is copied to the Recycle Bin as a bak > file. If the user interupts the compacting process e.g. by switching off > the computer it is likely that the dbx folder currently being compacted > will corrupt and the messages therein can become irretrievable. In this > situation the folder can be replaced by the copy in the Recycle Bin. If > the users current Outllook Express folders are intact the Recycle Bin > should be empied. Outlook Express dbx files can be quite large so emptying > the Recycle Bin can be important after compacting, where there is limited > free disk space. > http://www.insideoe.com/ > > With the introduction of Vista Outlook Express has been replaced by > Windows Mail which is virtually identical to Outlook Express except that > the way messages are stored has been changed so that compaction is no > longer necessary. > > -- > > > > Hope this helps. > > Gerry > ~~~~ > FCA > Stourport, England > Enquire, plan and execute > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > Joy wrote: >> Thanks, Randy, but is it normal for the maintenance to put backup >> files in the Recycle Bin? I had never seen this before. >> >> "Randy" <cakeman47@hotmail.com> wrote in message >> news:L7fOi.62$Mx6.13@newsfe05.lga... >>> The Outlook Express files happen when OE does a maintenance and >>> compresses and does a backup the OE folders. It happens every 30 >>> days on my computer. The others are also from a maintenance of some >>> sort but can't remember the name. If everything is working in OE and >>> he has the doc. files in My Documents then he can delete them. They >>> are just backup files thus the .bak extension. >>> >>> Randy >>> >>> "Joy" <joymp2@bellsouth.net.NO_SPAM> wrote in message >>> news:%235FzLKUCIHA.5360@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >>>> I was helping a friend with his computer today and he has something >>>> I've never seen before. His Recycle Bin is full of .bak files that >>>> seem to be from a variety of sources: Some are Outlook Express >>>> (including one that says Inbox and one that says Drafts!), but also >>>> files that he has in My Documents. Does anyone know how these >>>> would have landed up in the Recycle Bin and with a .bak extension? He's >>>> afraid to delete them in case he might list the originals. > >
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