Outlook express inbox.dbx file wont get rid of deleted items

[velvta]

I tried deleting some files from my inbox. ok, thats fine, so i delete them from the deleted items folder too. Yet when i open up my inbox.dbx file in my outlook folder, it never truly gets rid of the emails i deleted...what gives? this inbox.dbx file is getting huge! and if i delete it, everything goes away. Help?

[Prey521]

Deleted the "Deleted Items DBX" file from the Outlook Express folder.

[velvta]

Prey, i'm not sure that will help anything, let me explain again what's wrong.

The inbox.dbx file , when opened with hotepad, still has all the emails in there that I supposedly deleted, and even deleted from the deleted messages folder. I dont understand why they're still in there, yet they won't show up when you open up outlook express.

[fish59]

Find all instances of inbox.dbx by doing a FIND.
Delete all folders.
Reboot
They will be recreated next time you open OE.
They will be empty except for the microsoft Welcome To OE,just like when you first configured it.

[velvta]

Fish, I understand that...but the thing is, I don't want to lose all my old mail..It's like memories to me, from important people. I don't want to start clean and fresh. I just wonder why the dumb file will not delete the messages contained in it when it says it's deleting them in the gui portion of Outlook.