Well, interesting results. After taking, say, a folder called NAME (with
100 mb in the dbx file) and making a new folder called NAME-OLD and dropping
in half the E-Mails, you see the original folder file still has 100 Mb size
and the new one has 50 Mb. A manual compaction still shows the same
discrepancy.

However, after the 100 opens Auto Compaction, both files now show 50 Mb.

Ya learn something new everyday! The Auto-compaction sure does more than a
full manual compaction and clean-up.

Frenchy

"Frenchy" <invalid@invalid.com> wrote in message news:...
> Great advice Steve. I have sub split my larger folders now and will make
> sure this gets done for the future and keep all below the 100 Mb level!
>
> I always keep my IN, SENT and DELETED folders empty. My Mum taught me "A
> tidy house is a good house" and I cringe when I see business colleagues or
> friends with 1200+ messages in their IN Box or SENT box! And I realise
> why they are slow to respond!
>
> Frenchy
>
> "Steve Cochran" <scochran@oehelp.com> wrote in message
> news:eLHhqCfNFHA.164@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>> What I'm finding is that the actual full size of the message store is not
>> important per se, but when you do a Compact All (which you have to do
>> occasionally to compact folders.dbx and pop3uidl.dbx), it takes a long
>> time to compact a large message store, which leaves OE in a period of
>> vulnerability while its compacting.
>>
>> So I'm tending to move to the storing archived stuff in another ID (or
>> just in another directory and I use my new program OEX
>> (www.oehelp.com/OEX/) to import the dbx files when needed).
>>
>> If you are backing up frequently you are probably okay. But if the
>> folders get over 200 megs, then I'd sort them by date and split them up
>> by message dates. This is what I do with my sent items when it gets
>> about 150 megs.
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> steve
>>
>> "Frenchy" <invalid@invalid.com> wrote in message
>> news:eikHASWNFHA.436@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>>>
>>> "Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE" <franksaunders@mvps.org> wrote in
>>> message news:u3s1$DWNFHA.436@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>>>> "Frenchy" <invalid@invalid.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:uT$JvUVNFHA.3296@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl
>>>>> While I understand there is a physical limit of 2Gb for any individual
>>>>> dbx
>>>>> folder within OE, is there a limit on the whole Identity folder size
>>>>> in OE?
>>>>> I have a mass of accumulated folders and my total OE folder size is
>>>>> 2.5 Gb.
>>>>>
>>>>> I always allow the WinXP2 Autocompact at the 100 count and regularly
>>>>> do
>>>>> manual compacts
>>>>>
>>>>> Had a strange 'scare" last night, where a folder with 7 sub-folders
>>>>> suddenly
>>>>> showed no E-Mails at all present and no column headers (FROM, SUBJECT
>>>>> TO
>>>>> etc) at the top of the page.
>>>>>
>>>>> A manual compact brought them all back, so not sure why this happened,
>>>>> but
>>>>> wonder about the total OE folder size. No individual DBX file is
>>>>> above 800
>>>>> Mb.
>>>>>
>>>>> Frenchy
>>>>
>>>> I don't think there's a total limit, but it's a good idea to try
>>>> keeping individual DBX files below 100 MB.
>>>>
>>>> It's also a good idea to backup regularly. The DBX file structure is
>>>> very prone to corruption and loss.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
>>>> Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
>>>> http://www.fjsmjs.com
>>>> Protect your PC
>>>> http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
>>>> http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks. I do back up very regularly! As the files (E-Mails +
>>> Attachments) are business orientated, it is hard to keep them under 100
>>> Mb (well 5 of them anyway are above 100 Mb). Seems I need to create a
>>> new identity and migrate them there and delete from the main identity?
>>> Or is there a neater solution?
>>>
>>> What I need the search ability within each OE folder and a bit of a pain
>>> swapping identities for the occasional search
>>>
>>> Frenchy
>>>
>>
>
>