Extract it
Outlook Express has devoured my email Inbox and left me with only the past few days' worth of incoming mail - although from the file size of inbox.dbx, there are still more messages lingering somewhere. Is there software to repair the Inbox or can I rescue inbox.dbx another way? (Prof) Alastair G Gale

Jack Schofield replies: If an Outlook Express database (dbx) file is broken, there does not seem to be any way to repair it without losing its contents. The best option is therefore to save any recent mail, by dragging it from Outlook Express to a folder in Windows Explorer, and then replace the broken Inbox.dbx file with your back-up copy. (If the back-up is from CD, be sure to right-click the file and change it from Read-Only first.) You can restore the most recent email by dragging it from its folder in Windows Explorer and dropping it into Outlook Express, when it is open at Inbox.

Alternatively you can close Outlook Express and rename Inbox.dbx to something else, such as Oldinbox.dbx. When you restart Outlook Express offline, it will notice Inbox.dbx is missing and automatically create a new one. You can then put your back-up inbox.dbx file in a temporary directory and import it. Do this by going to File|Import| Messages, selecting the correct program, then clicking the lower radio button to import mail from a store folder. The unofficial OE FAQ at www.tomsterdam.com/insideOE offers help with this and other OE problems. Also see the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article Q270670, How to Back Up and Recover Outlook Express Data.

You can find this by searching Google for Q270670. However, if you do not have a recent backup, you should download Stephen Cochran's free program, DBXtract, from http://chattanooga.net/~scochran/DBXtract.htm.

This will extract all the mail from any dbx file and save each message as a separate plain text file. These files are named from the Subject line and have an eml extension, so, again, you can put them back in your mailbox by dragging them from Windows Explorer and dropping them in Outlook Express. An even better solution would be to import them into a proper database. I use AskSam for this, but a $25 shareware program, Express Archiver, offers a much cheaper way of storing old mail securely.

Cochran has written a new version of DBXtract, called DBXtend http://chattanooga.net/~scochran/DBXtend.htm. This can add a timestamp to the filename, so you can sort by time/date in Windows Explorer. It can also remove attachments, including the HTML part of multi-part messages. However, it costs $30 on CD and you cannot download a copy, so I have not tried it.

More Java
I was interested to read Lynda's letter about the lack of Java on a computer running Windows XP (Septem ber 19): I have the same problem. I have tried to download Service Pack 1 but, for my set-up, this came to 42MB, which would apparently take 146 minutes to download. As my ISP cuts me off after two hours, this is not an option. Jon Myer

JS: XP's Service Pack 1, as mentioned last week, includes Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine. You can order a copy of SP1 on CD, free, from www.microsoft.com/uk/windowsxp/servicepacks/sp1.asp. Thanks to Laurie Robinson, IT Training and Support Officer at the University of Sheffield Union of Students, for this information.

USB for NT
I have a laptop running Windows NT. It has two USB sockets, which are disabled. How do I get NT to use them? Andy Ledger

JS: Windows NT 4.0, launched in November 1996, does not support Universal Serial Bus (USB) sockets. The recommended solution is to upgrade to a later version of NT, either Windows 2000 or XP Professional. Search Google for the Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q196661 for more information. BSquare has produced USB software for NT 4.0 for $39.95 but it does not support cameras or scanners.

Word wise
I email many Microsoft Word documents to people, and inevitably they do not have the font I use, so the result is often messy. Is there a way of setting a "fall-back" default font within a document? Phil Clarke

JS: If Word does not have a font, it makes its "best guess" automatically, and I do not know of a way to change that. However, one solution is to send the fonts along with your documents. Go to Tools| Options and click the tab marked Save. Put ticks in the boxes next to Embed TrueType fonts and Embed characters in use only. Do not tick the latter if you want people to edit your documents.

Notebook
You wrote about bargain PCs for under £500. Do you have similar advice regarding laptops? I have a student daughter who wants one. Margaret Hung

JS: Unfortunately, notebook PCs still cost about twice as much as comparable desktop PCs, partly because of the high cost of LCD screens and lithium ion batteries. You can get end-of-life and obsolete notebooks for around £600-£700 on the Tottenham Court Road in London. However, this is not a great saving on the limited special offers Dell puts on its website, or the new Toshiba Satellite 1400 "value" range. On the other hand, a second-hand buy may be more attractive. Old desktop PCs can always be taken apart for spares, but old notebooks are basically worthless.

You could try to find something suitable on eBay or at least consult it as a guide to the maximum price you should pay. If buying second hand, it is probably best to stick to the major brands, such as IBM's ThinkPad range, HP's Omnibook and the various Toshibas.

Backchat
KD Boardman wrote from Bury St Edmunds to say that: "For the record, Tera is the ISO standard prefix for 10 to the powere of 12. [Your] 2 to the powere of 40 is a useful approximation when dealing with things structured and sized in a binary way." Most computing is based on binary numbers, and usually if I have 10 to the power of 12 of anything I call it a trillion.