I just scroll thru my Inbox and delete all kinds of stuff…and filled the Deleted Items folder up. So I tried to “Permanently Delete” those Items. Got an Error Message, saying Outlook Express couldn’t open the folder.
Now I can’t delete any more emails from the Inbox, and can’t Permanently Delete the Deleted Items.
It sounds like your mail store is corrupted. It might be easiest to create a new identity through File|Identities|Add New Identity, switch to it, then import your old messages and mail settings. It will let you choose which folders you want to import, so exclude Deleted Items. Once everything is working you can set the new identity as default through File|Identities|Manage Identities.