All of a sudden I can't delete some read items from the inbox. Get message 'This message could not be deleted'. ???

You most likely have a corrupted delete.dbx file. Try this:

Close Outlook Express. Search for "delete.dbx" on your PC. I'm not sure exactly where this is anymore. But it should be somewhere under Documents and Settings.

Rename this file to something else like"delete.bak"

Restart Outlook Express. This will create a new delete.dbx file and you should be OK.

When was the last time you emptied your deleted items folder?

Right click on your deleted items folder and select Empty.

That might do the trick too.

I was close. Here is a link to the Microsoft KB article on this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312348/en-us

Good stuff. Problem is I don't want to lose my deleted items. There's business stuff in there that I may need to reference. If all else fails I'll just create a backup file. Is there really a space limit on deleted messages? Can it be changed?

I'm sorry, I'm not understanding how you plan to keep "Important Business Stuff" in your deleted items folder?

Get them outta there quick.

Howard-

Create a folder for your Important Business Stuff in OE (right click "Local Folders" then "New Folders" and name it, oh, "Important Business Stuff") Drag and drop the stuff you want to keep from the deleted items folder into your new folder.

Then empty your deleted items folder. Too much crappola just gums up the works (mentally if nothing else.)

Keep what you need, get rid of what you don't.

My $.02

Right, so you should make a folder and copy those items into it.

And stop doing that too.

Thanks guys. On the right track. 'deleted items' got infected or corrupted so I'm in the process of moving those items to a safe spot for future reference. Then I can follow Paul's fix tip to delete and replace 'deleted items' or just reinstall Outlook Express.

Just FYI why it's important for me to keep these, here's an example...

Someone wants to save money on their policy and increase deductibles. We want this in writing in case he has a claim and 'forgets' he ordered the change. I print the email and put it in his file, but as a backup, still save all deleted items.

Create an "asshole file"....drag and drop them in there....you should have a seperate file for me.....

Deleted messages should be for stuff you don't wanna see. It's there so that if you DO delete something you wanna keep you can get it back....shouldn't be for storage.

OK here you go. What you really need to do is creat a FileName.pst file to keep the important e-mails. follow the link for the answers to all your Outlook questions.

Outlook tips and answers

This utility has saved my behind on more than one occasion.

The Inbox Repair Tool is located in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033\NT directory of any system that’s running Windows 2000 or Windows XP. The tool’s filename is Scanpst.exe.

Dr. Rog

to both the above posts
That or set up to save a copy of the email in your sent items. This will also max you out for your email box limits, but you usually get a couple of months in before performance goes way down.