Lanew said:
Outlook 2003, Windows XP Home
I accidentally deleted months of emails in my inbox, I think. Cant find
them. I have it set to empty the deleted items on exit, so they seem to be
gone. Is there a way to recover them from someplace???
You never mentioned what TYPE of mail server that you use. If using
Exchange, read:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/ha011165281033.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/246153
If not using Exchange, you're into the realm of searching for utilities
that try to change the status of records in the database (.pst file) for
the message store, so be sure to make a backup copy of your .pst file
before you start to edit it. Deleted items aren't really deleted, just
moved to a different folder (Deleted Items). Permanently deleted items
aren't physically deleted, either. Outlook simply hides the delete-
marked items in its display. The delete-marked items remain in the
database until they get purged (i.e., compaction on the .pst file).
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/recover_deleted.htm
Tools like OutlookSpy and Microsoft's MDBVU32.EXE but require some
knowledge of the internal structures used by Outlook in its .pst
database file.
If you or Outlook has compacted the message store, that physically
purges the hidden delete-marked records from the .pst database file.
That means your backups will be the only means for recovery. If you
don't backup, you deem your data as trivial or reproducible.