Emails dissapear

[Matt]

i was wondering if the temp folder that outlook stores emails before deleting
or while downloading them is ot cleared and or formatted after the close

My case is, the outlook 2003 i use after importing old emails i decided to
update the emails from the net for the last month, after doing so i opened
outlook over and over after closing a few times
because the user in question is very good at messing things up
well, after being logged off the user logged in and opened outlook,

an error msg came up saying it needed a pst file for the one in use was
corrupt
while re loading the backup of the old emails the new ones have dissapeared,
while checking the allow duplicates option for good reason all new msgs are
gone

my question is if the temp folder is not emptyed, worring that the log off
may have emptyed it,what is this folder, where is it located and is it redily
readable by outlook or will i need some program to program them into a pst
file or of the such

if anyone could give there input and knowledge it would be a great help,

thanks