An Avast scan picked out two files which it called “decompression bombs” I thought this didn’t sound too good, so I moved them to the Virus Chest, thinking I could restore them if necessary. It turns out that moving these files caused the loss of most of the letters in my Inbox. I tried to restore these files, but it didn’t work. System Restore didn’t work either. I am running Windows ME, and Netscape Communicator. I would appreciate any help.
Avast can not extract a single mail from a NS box. So the ‘entire’ box will be deleted.
To prevent loss of emails, you should put the ones you want to keep in a seperate folder/box and not in the inbox.
What do you mean? Which error message did you get?
Did you close your email program before trying to restore?
We tell here a lot of times… System Restore is a joke from Microsoft, although some users think it’s a must have feature.
I have mine disabled. For me, when I need it, just loose of space and system resources.
The error message said “Action was completed with errors” I closed all open programmes before restoring. Avast did not lose the entire Inbox. It left several messages of various dates.
I tried extracting the files (which are still shown in the virus chest) and got the same error message. I was able to move one file to the desktop, but when I tried opening it with various programmes (notepad, wordpad, Open office, Netscape) all I get is a bunch of computer code. I couldn’t move the second file from the virus chest.
Can you try to repair your installation?
Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > avast! antivirus > Remove. Then choose Repair function in the popup window (Repair). You must be connected to the internet while repairing.
This is how avast! work with inboxes (except Thunderbird that has known issues on deleting single messages in inbox).
Can you try to restore the file to a floppy or another removable media?
The repair option didn’t work, and neither did extracting to a floppy.
kennym,
Please go HERE and read about decompression bombs. 
Read reply #1.
I guess my inbox messages are gone for good. Next time I will know better than to mess with decompression bombs!
Thanks to all who made suggestions.
kennym