[Hidden-tech] Lost 2008 email from Thunderbird 2.0.0.16

[Jan Werner]

You probably have corrupted or destroyed the index (Inbox.msf) to the 
Inbox file, but not the Inbox file (Inbox with no file extension) 
itself. Quit Thunderbird, find and move Inbox.msf to another folder, 
then open Thunderbird. That should recreate the index.

Mozilla (meaning Thunderbird and Seamonkey, which use the same engine) 
index files are easily corrupted if the system shuts down while they are 
being updated, so you should always close Thunderbird and wait for disk 
activity to stop before hibernating.

Aside from that, you will greatly improve performance and reduce the 
risk of index corruption if you regularly compact your email folders. 
Your Inbox is actually a single file to which each incoming email is 
appended when it comes in.  When you "move" email to the trash or to 
another "folder" it is not actually deleted but the index is updated to 
bypass it. If you never compact your email files, they grow endlessly 
and the index files get more and more complex, meaning the program takes 
longer and longer to find each message.

If you have many large attachments, it also helps to save them and then 
delete them from the email messages before compacting the email folders.

Jan Werner
___________

Stacy Kontrabecki wrote:
>   ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>   ** If you did, we all thank you.
> 
> 
> My Dell laptop with XP on it has been cranky about waking from 
> hibernation when I lift the lid.  It often is a minute before anything 
> shows on the screen, but most times it's a few seconds.  I couldn't get 
> anything so I tapped the power button, which sometimes pops the image on 
> the screen and I'm OK.  The other times it shuts down the PC in a bad 
> way.  After today's shut down I open to Thunderbird to see my Inbox with 
> mail as recent as July 07, but nothing new.  There are new emails that 
> have been filtered into my INbox subdirectories that still exist, but 
> nothing in just the Inbox.
> 
> So I have 2 problems - the biggest being
> 
> Where can I find 2008 new email?
> 
> The bigger Q is Why do I get these hibernate lockups that require nasty 
> manual power button intervention?  I've had similar issues twice already 
> this year where my Inbox has been totally relocated to some cryptic 
> place on my hard drive that takes a 2nd party and hours to find - never 
> relocates to a logical place.  I just need to start from scratch with 
> this PC, but haven't done so yet.
> 
> Help me find my email!
> 
> Stacy
> 
> 
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