[GDH]

Do you know if your Outlook Express was set up normally? ie. did your mail download from the Internet and get stored in a .dbx file?

3gb sounds like an awfully big .dbx file. How do you know it was this big?

There are some viruses that will screw around with the location of your mail files. Downloading games from the net raises this possibility. Have you done an up to date virus scan?

I think the first thing to check is whether your .dbx files are actually deleted.

First, open Outlook Express and click on TOOLS - OPTIONS - MAINTENANCE - STORE FOLDER. This will tell you where you dbx files should be. Now navigate to that folder with Windows Explorer to make sure that is not corrupted or is blocking off the files for some other reason.

Next you should do a search of your PC for .dbx extension. User Recover My Files to do this (as it will find the files by header and footer and not just look for the extension). Run the program and select "Complete File Search". In the drive selection window click ADD FOLDER TO SEARCH. Add your C: drive as a folder. Put a tick next to this folder and ignore the message about not having any drive selected. Run the search just for .DBX files and let me know if you find any.