Broken finger nails and blood on my keyboard, all self inflicted! I tried to reduce the size of my Inbox and Sent Items by creating a NEW folder in Windows\Appilc data\Identities (instead of GETTING OE to create the folders), saved all the old data in these folders, but now can't open them through OE, and can't restore them THRU "import". How do I get OE to "see" my new folders? :-?What method did you use to "save" the old data?You know, I've tried so many fixes I can't really remember! I think I highlighted the emails in OE and copied them to the new folderIt sounds to me like you CREATED the new folder in Windows Explorer.  Surely you didn't try and drag the emails from Outlook Express into Windows Explorer?Yes, I created a new folder in Windows Explorer.  But this is the catch - I can't remember how I managed to move my messages to this folder. Certainly not drag and drop. I did highlight the messages, but couldn't copy and paste, couldn't have "Imported/Exported" as OE doesn't "see" this new folder, so there is the nub of the problem.If you exported it from OE, you should be able to import it again.  What problem exactly are you having on import?I'm using Windows 98 2e, OE 6. Click File, Import, messages, browse, find the identity folder and click next, get message "The specified message store could not be opened. It may be in use by Outlook Express" = can't import itself into the same identity.  Tried to create a new identity and it will import to there, but only the folders that OE can "see", and not my folder Sent Items 2006. Also tried renaming the folders but OE isn't fooled by that.  
Sent Items 2006 has the data (27MB), can open it in Word (reads gobbledegook), but just can't open it in OE.If you'd like to zip the data and email it to me, I may be able to do something with it.  PM me for my email address.Thanks Robpomeroy - I think you put me on track by asking exactly what the message is. I managed to copy my data to ANOTHER folder on the desktop, then emailed it to myself and hay presto, once in the outbox I saved it to disk and all is well!!
Many thanks for your time and help and kind offer of zip help ....
RaffalsVery glad you got it sorted.  Sometimes just talking about a problem leads to a solution.

Feel free to come back and talk again!