[lizkkk]

Using Outlook Express - I was emailing an email with an image attachment. It was an attachment I had mailed to someone earlier in the day... Anyway, the email would not get completely sent, so instead of just waiting for it to send, I decided to 'hurry up' the process and turned off the computer hoping that would do the trick.

Well a trick it did do. When my email came back up, all emails were completely wiped out. My email directory is gone. Saved emails gone. Everything but one email from 2006.

I am just in shock. My husband 'reinstalled' the system, but when it came back up again, the situation was the same. Absolutely no emails.

What can I do to retrieve them or is this a virus problem??

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Hi,
First off, if you have reinstalled the OS there is absolutely no way to get it back sorry.
Second, I dont think a virus caused the deletion of your emails, sometimes, when an application is running and you force shutdown the computer while its running that will cause problems.
I mean you could try to look in the folder of ooutlook in your C drive, but I dont think you will find anything sorry.

[BMTHmisfit]

Hi,
First off, if you have reinstalled the OS there is absolutely no way to get it back sorry.
Second, I dont think a virus caused the deletion of your emails, sometimes, when an application is running and you force shutdown the computer while its running that will cause problems.
I mean you could try to look in the folder of ooutlook in your C drive, but I dont think you will find anything sorry.

[mike171562]

By forcibly closing Outlook Express while it was sending you probably corrupted your PST file, which is where your emails and contact are stored. Its possible they are still located in your Webmail, if you had configured outlook to leave a copy of messages on the server, or if you were using IMAP. It's even possible to repair your PST file, but not if you re-installed Windows.

Edited by mike171562, 21 July 2009 - 01:17 PM.

[Neil Jones]

PST files are used by Outlook, not Outlook Express. Outlook Express uses DBX files.
Regardless, if the DBX files are corrupt, unfortunately it's game over.

[Johanna]

Exactly what did your husband do to "reinstall" the system? Did he use System Restore or the XP CD? Are your other files (docs, pics etc) still there? If they are, do a search for .dbx files and see what you find. If they are there, it is possible to get them back into OE. If he nuked your Operating System with the CD, the emails are gone, unless you know someone with some good recovery software (very expensive!) Some of your email might still be on the server. You can check that by logging into the server. If you opened OE and it didn't start downloading email right away, they aren't there either. Let us know what your husband did to the computer.
Johanna