I always back up (export) all messages before allowing Windows Mail to
compact all folders to minimise the risk that the compaction process might
change the functionality and/or content of some messages (like making
attachments no longer accessible etc). Experts will probably say that this is
completely unnecessary - but I'd rather err on the side of caution anyway!

In fact, I advise that you regularly back up (export) all messages to a new
folder and then delete the previous backup folder. This will make it so much
easier to import all messages back into Windows Mail in one single operation
after a reload etc, and avoid having several imported folders and dozens of
duplicate messages to deal with!

--
Why is it always so hard to find the information you need on the Microsoft
site?!!

This is not needed. In OE, when compaction occured all the dbx files were
compacted. This include the message database information and the messages
themselves, as they were stored in the database. In WinMail, the messages
are stored as individual files under directories that correspond to the
folders you see in the folder list. When compaction occurs, the database is
compacted and the messages are unaffected, since the database (the
WindowsMail.MSMessageStore file and its other components) is completely
segregated from the message files. So compaction, even if it fails and gets
corrupted, will not result in any message loss. The worse case scenario
would be that one has to rebuild the database from the messages that still
exist. This is a far better method than was used in OE (where messages are
somewhat routinely lost).

In addition, since the message database is much much smaller than in OE
(since it no longer contains the messages) compaction of the database (which
only removes wasted space) is much less of an issue than it was in OE.

See the section on WinMail here for more details:
www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

steve

"Essexbiker" wrote in message
...
I always back up (export) all messages before allowing Windows Mail to
compact all folders to minimise the risk that the compaction process might
change the functionality and/or content of some messages (like making
attachments no longer accessible etc). Experts will probably say that this
is
completely unnecessary - but I'd rather err on the side of caution anyway!

In fact, I advise that you regularly back up (export) all messages to a
new
folder and then delete the previous backup folder. This will make it so
much
easier to import all messages back into Windows Mail in one single
operation
after a reload etc, and avoid having several imported folders and dozens
of
duplicate messages to deal with!

--
Why is it always so hard to find the information you need on the Microsoft
site?!!

"Essexbiker" wrote in message
...
I always back up (export) all messages before allowing Windows Mail to
compact all folders to minimise the risk that the compaction process might
change the functionality and/or content of some messages (like making
attachments no longer accessible etc). Experts will probably say that this
is
completely unnecessary - but I'd rather err on the side of caution anyway!

In fact, I advise that you regularly back up (export) all messages to a
new
folder and then delete the previous backup folder. This will make it so
much
easier to import all messages back into Windows Mail in one single
operation
after a reload etc, and avoid having several imported folders and dozens
of
duplicate messages to deal with!

--
Why is it always so hard to find the information you need on the Microsoft
site?!!