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General discussion

Permanently deleting emails in Outlook Express

by gerette Jul 10, 2007 7:25AM PDT

Howdy. I have OE 6. When I delete an email, it then goes to a subfile which I need to go to in order to permanently delete the email. Is there any way to perm. delete multiple emails rather than one by one with the yes/no box checking if you want to perm. delete? Thanks so much for any help.

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6 Posts
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gerette
by tomron Jul 10, 2007 7:49AM PDT

The way that I do it is to highlight one of them>edit>select all>then edit again>empty'deleted Items' folder.

Tom

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You said ...
by Edward ODaniel Jul 10, 2007 9:44AM PDT
When I delete an email, it then goes to a subfile which I need to go to in order to permanently delete the email

That "subfile" should be labeled "Deleted Items" and if you were to RIGHT CLICK on it you would see the option to Empty "Deleted Items" folder

Also if you open Outlook Express then select the Tools menu them Options then the Maintenance tab you could place a check in the checkbox labeled "Empty messages from the "Deleted Items" folder on exit"

Now, it should be mentioned that since the OE message store is a database even after deleting from the "Deleted Items" folder deleted records can still be recovered (much like a deleted file) because the database has actually only marked them for deletion and doesn't show them. To really delete them from the database you need to COMPACT the folders.

Compacting can either be accomplished by a couple of settings in the Tools | Options | Maintenance tab location or by clicking the File menu then selecting Folders then the COMPACT option you prefer.
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Permanently deleting emails in Outlook Express
by gerette Jul 10, 2007 10:12AM PDT

Edward: Thanks so much. Did the right click and that is what I was looking for!! I realize its not truly permanently erased but you answered my question. That must have been a dahhhh one for you!!! Thanks kindly and have a good one.

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Deleted. . .
by Coryphaeus Jul 10, 2007 10:55AM PDT

When you "Empty Deleted Items" in the Deleted items folder, they are gone. Permanent. Period. They are not in the Windows Trash folder. They are gone. Unless you have chosen to leave them on the email server at your ISP which I do not recommend.

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Not so Wayne ...
by Edward ODaniel Jul 11, 2007 7:53AM PDT

until the message store is COMPACTED the "deleted" records (emails) are still contained in the database and can be accessed with forensic tools. When objects or records are deleted from the database, the space they occupied is marked as available for new additions to the database. However, unless an entire page of data has been deleted, the page remains in a partially filled state.

Although incomplete and oriented to Access, this page might clarify why compacting is necessary to actually delete database records.
http://safari.oreilly.com/0672309998/ch35lev1sec2

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(NT) Oh. Forensic tools.
by Coryphaeus Jul 11, 2007 11:05AM PDT
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