I suppose I have too many email messages in Outlook Express. Recently,
everytime I exit that application, it asks me this:

"To free up disc space, Outlook Express can compact messages. This may
take up to a few minutes."

My choices are:  "OK" and "Cancel".

It didn't used to ask me that.

I've been selecting "Cancel" everytime.  If I should select "OK",
would that erase some messages or just reduce disc space without
erasing individual emails?

Howdy limegreen-ga,

This is just Outlook Express trying to help you when your email messages start
taking up more room than is needed.

Go ahead and select "OK," but be aware that since this is the first time for
your email to be compacted it might take some time.  It is very important that
you allow the compaction process to finish before you turn off your machine.

Future compaction should not take as much time, and you will find that Outlook
Express will run faster and smoother if you compact your messages on a regular
basis.

"Why You Should Let Outlook Express Compact Messages When It Asks You," by
Heinz Tschabitscher, and presented on the About.com website, provides more.
http://email.about.com/od/outlookexpresstroubles/qt/et_compact_oe.htm

"When you delete an email in Outlook Express, it is moved to the Deleted Items
folder. The message disappears from its original folder, and when you empty the
trash, it disappears from there, too.

In neither case is the message removed from the file on your disk immediately,
however.
...
So Outlook Express tries to remove these deleted emails physically from time to
time. This is calls 'compacting', and it asks you to start the process every
100 times you close Outlook Express."

If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.


Search strategy: Personal experience.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Just what I needed. Many thanks!

My pleasure, limegreen-ga, and thanks for the 5 star rating.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

I recently had a disaster happen when I accepted this compaction offer
by OE.  I lost many recent emails, ie from that day back to an earlier
date (Jan 2006).
I have tried several OE repair and recovery utilities to no avail.
Microsoft admit to this possibility which has happened to many people
before.  There seems to be no recovery possible!!!
Any solution to this would be extremely appreciated.

Howdy les123456-ga,

If you were to post your problem as a question, there might be a researcher
that would be willing to research it.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher