Lost some of my emails from a specific folder OL 2003

[CaptJack]

I have had this happen a couple of times and we cannot figure out why. We are
running laptops on a simple LAN network in the office. I am running Outlook
2003. Recently, we had to "clean" my laptop due to some issues. We archived
everything on the server and formatted and reinstalled everything. After
that, we took the archived outlook .pst and put our folders and emails back
in.

Now, I am missing all emails from just a few of my folders for a 2 month
period. This period coincides with my last backup and the date of the backup
for the reinstall. But it is not all of my emails, only a few folders.

I am guessing they are still around. This problem is well above my grade to
figure out the solution, so any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I guess you didn't test your backup before formatting?
Without telling us any details about the account configuration and which
steps you took to backup and restore, it is hard to tell where you went
wrong. However, you can find generic backup and restore instructions here;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm

 

[CaptJack]

We actually did test the backup. However, we did not verify every folder and
every email. Only about half the folders are missing the 8 week period.

What kind of account information do I need to provide? I am using a POP3
mail server.

The process: We Archived the email folder using Outlook and saved that file
to our server via the LAN. We opened the archive folder to ensure the most
recent emails were there. (they were, but we did not check every folder). We
reinstalled Outlook along with the other programs. After reinstalling, we
imported the archived folders using outlooks import features.

I understand it is most likely frustrating dealing with people who don't
understand the programs as well as you may. The idea here is to get some help
from people who have the skills for people who do not. I did search through
the forums, knowledge base and other places before posting. None of the other
"loss of emails" topics seemed to cover my issue.

thanks for responding.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

The archive feature doesn't produce a backup; it only moves items based on
the modified date. Even when you set it to the current date, it will not
produce a full mailbox backup or export. The only way you would have been
sure that you have a full backup is by directly copying the pst-file.

The import function is also not a tool to perform a restore. Directly
connecting to the backed up pst-file will tell you what exactly you backed
up. If it is not in there, than you haven't backed it up and your data is
gone.

To directly connect to a pst-file you choose File-> Open-> Outlook Data
File...

I understand it is most likely frustrating dealing with people who don't
understand the programs as well as you may. The idea here is to get some
help
from people who have the skills for people who do not.

If it was frustrating, I simply wouldn't be here ;-) Everybody posts here
voluntarily.

 

[CaptJack]

Okay, so I did it wrong and lost emails.

What are the parameters outlook uses to "not archive or backup" certain
emails? Why did it only not "archive" just certain folders instead of emails
from certain time periods?
It seems odd.

thanks, by the way.