Vista - Windows Live Mail Automatic Backup When Compressing

Windows Live Mail tells the user it is making an automatic backup of message
files every time it compresses.

Where is this backup and how does one access it from the keyboard if it is
required in order to restore?

The WLM Help is singularly unhelpful on this issue.

DSH

It's in your Store folder buried in a sub-folder called ... Backup.
It's not user-useable, and so not accessible from the keyboard. The
backup consists of a copy of your MessageStore database, which does
not contain 'message files' but rather indexed pointers to them
along with appropriate flags. Should anything happen to your
MessageStore, the program will attempt to reconstruct it from the
backup and its temp files. Peter.R gave a clear exposé just a couple
of days ago at
news:OTgHKCd2IHA.1768@xxxxxx

Just to clear up any possible confusion, you should note that your
message store is in fact a folder known as Store folder but quite
possibly named something else and probably hidden. This folder
should not be confused with Storage folders, which is a folder
within your store folder containing folders for storing messages in.
You will also find inside your message store (the folder known as
store folder) a lot of other folders used for storing messages and
things in (other than storage folders, that is) but called something
else, and a file called Mail.MSMessageStore. This is in fact not
your message store (you will remember that that is your store
folder), but is simply a very large file used to store details of
the messages in your message store.
--
Noel
Nihil illegitimi carborundum - Caesar adsum jam forte, Brutus
aderat.

"D. Spencer Hines" <panther@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:#qltulH3IHA.4448@xxxxxx

"Ildhund" <jnllb@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eHYFA5I3IHA.5024@xxxxxx
Hmmmmmm...

At:

<C:\Documents and Settings\DSH\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Backup\new> ?
Bad Rice. That won't come up.
<G>

Merci beaucoup.

So, how does the user restore his scrambled messages?

Or does he just get one of those silly prompts?

DSH

P.S.
_Illegitimis Non Carborundum_ is much more elegant.

How to Backup Windows Live Mail Accounts, Contacts and Messages
http://liveunplugged.spaces.live.com...90CA!174.entry
- The above covers exporting

To Import - use /File/Import/Messages/Windows Live Mail/etc..
--
...winston
ms-mvp mail


"D. Spencer Hines" <panther@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:OSkYyFK3IHA.1720@xxxxxx

Thank you kindly.

I was also interested in the BACKUP that is made every time WLM compacts and
how we use that to RESTORE.

DSH

"...winston" <winstonmvp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0A20CC17-1E45-45D4-BF60-1C94DD7BCBAD@xxxxxx
Yes, I've IMPORTED several times -- quite successfully.

A Worthwhile Feature...

DSH

You don't, It's not OE's Oldsmobile...see Ildhund's response.

--
...winston
ms-mvp mail


"D. Spencer Hines" <panther@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:O23OGyL3IHA.4800@xxxxxx

I never said it WAS "OE's Oldsmobile"...

Farblondjet.

Ildhund's response doesn't deal with the AUTOMATIC Backup WLM makes each
time it compacts on its own and how to USE it...

Apples and Oranges.

And his LINK doesn't WORK.

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas
------------------------------------------------

"...winston" <winstonmvp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23ALssSN3IHA.1436@xxxxxx

"D. Spencer Hines" <panther@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OyFYyjN3IHA.4036@xxxxxx
[Please don't SHOUT - this isn't Mory's.]

It didn't actually deal with anything else. WLMail's message about
automatic backup refers to copying Mail.MSMessageStore. *You* can't
use this copy unless you know the ins and outs of ESE; the program
uses it when something goes wrong. It should not be regarded as a
substitute for performing regular backups of your messages etc. as
described in winston's blog.
It will if you have msnews.microsoft.com as your default news
server, which is the default setting for WLMail. You won't find
Peter's post at Google Groups, probably because he's still using
base64 encoding, but you will at
http://www.microsoft.com/communities...90c&sloc=en-us
or http://tinyurl.com/54wbwe

Alternatively, you could have used the search and sort mechanisms in
WLMail to locate the post in just a few seconds.
--
Noel

Request: Please stop crossposting your replies to OE6 newsgroup. Thanks.

Ildhund wrote:

Thank you kindly.

I prefer CLEAN URL's.

No TIME to muck about looking for a message.

It's just proper form and Good Manners to post a CLEAN URL -- sans
shilly-shallying or importuning.

OR:

All you had to do was quote Peter R. as follows:
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Peter.R In: microsoft.public.windows.live.mail.desktop

Michael is correct Noel.

Since the database for WLMail and WMail does not contain the messages, it
only references their meta-data and indexes their location.

But does it BACKUP all the STORAGE files as well -- for example a storage
file that contains 10,000 emails IMPORTED from OE6? -- DSH

Additionally, the Extensible Storage Engine (ESENT or ESE, the same Exchange
uses) keeps a backup of all transactions (initially through log files).
Whilst the full backup of the database is deleted during database
compaction, it is recreated shortly afterward and periodically updated.

If the database is corrupted, WLMail first tries to restore it from the
backup. Often though, new messages have been received since the database was
backed up. Such messages don't have entries in the database and are
therefore 'recovered' during the restoration of the database.

Thus, manually replacing the database with an older version will likely
cause the 'recovery' of all non-indexed messages. However, messages that
were previously indexed but no longer exist (since deleted), may remain
referenced in the database, and so appear in WLMail's message list. Such
non-existent messages will obviously produce an error when one attempts to
open them from the message list.

A very detailed explanation of the ESE database can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Storage_Engine
and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...68(VS.85).aspx

ESENT provides its own utility called Esentutl (see attached screenshot),
that, whilst it cannot reconstruct deleted messages, can be used for certain
database file management functions, namely defragmentation (compaction),
recovery, integrity check, checksum, repair, file dump, and copy.
Esentutl.exe is located in the Windows\System32 folder, but is run from an
elevated command prompt.

Note: If there are spaces in the file *path*, you need to enclose the file
path in quotation marks ("")
Examples:

To test the integrity of the database:

Vista: esentutl /g "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Live
Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore"
XP: esentutl /g "%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail\Mail.MSMessageStore"

Whilst Esentutl can be useful, and interesting to experiment with, I don't
recommend using it to compact WLMail's database, as it is much safer to do
it through WLMail itself.
--
Cheers,
Peter.R

(Windows Vista Home Premium with Windows Live Mail 12.0.1606)

"There are more things in Heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in
your philosophy." - Shakespeare
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Bingo!

That's one of my favorites from _Hamlet_ too.

No one couth ever shouts in Mory's -- nor am I shouting here.

It's called EMPHASIS.

Cheers,

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

"Ildhund" <jnllb@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:#JCsaOP3IHA.3500@xxxxxx