Kevin J. Nielsen wrote:

> "Gordon" <gbplinux******.com.invalid> wrote
>
> many problems in OE with regard to corrupt folders and loss of data seem
> to
> be caused precisely BECAUSE the user did not compact on a regular
> basis....
>
>
> Alright but that still leaves doubt. Saying problems are caused because
> users dont compact regularly could mean either they waited too long to
> compact and when they did, it caused corruption.

The usual cause of corruption when compacting is the user interrupting
it.....

> Or it could mean that
> the user never compacted at all and that caused the corruption.

if the dbx files are allowed to get too big, then the probability of them
corrupting grows. Also you should NOT store data in the default OE folders
(Inbox, sent items) as these too have a high propensity for corrupting.
When messages are deleted from an OE folder, the space that they occupied is
still there. Compaction removes that space, so the dbx file becomes leaner
and not bloated.

Although I do not now use OE, I never had any problems with either data loss
or corruption, or with the compacting process. if you are truly worried
about it, then I suggest you investigate something like Mozilla Thunderbird
as an alternative...