Can you help with lost archive file please?

[Steve BC]

I seem to have completely lost all messages in my archive. Don't know what I
can have done to cause this to happen. Checked answers here and I definitely
have looked for all .pst files. The one called "archive.pst" can be opened,
but has zero messages in it.

IT is Outlook 2002 SP3. Is it known to have these spontaneous overwrites of
files? Is there any hope of recovering? Not, from what I can see, by finding
..pst files. I got nothing with any data in it that way.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I seem to have completely lost all messages in my archive. Don't know
what I can have done to cause this to happen. Checked answers here
and I definitely have looked for all .pst files. The one called
"archive.pst" can be opened, but has zero messages in it.

What's its size in Windows Explorer?

IT is Outlook 2002 SP3. Is it known to have these spontaneous
overwrites of files? Is there any hope of recovering? Not, from what
I can see, by finding .pst files. I got nothing with any data in it
that way.

Spontaneously overwrite? No. There are things outside of Outlook that
might affect a PST, however. SInce we don't know what may be installed on
your PC, it's hard to say what it might have been. See if this helps:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/restoredeleteditemsfromanoutlookpst.htm
It might not get you anywhere, but since you have nothing now, you're
risking little. Make a copy of the PST to play with.

 

[Steve BC]

Thanks, that helps in that it gets me closer to the root of things, and how
to play with the files etc. As you say, it may not solve the ultimate problem
if the data is lost. But a good pointer for what to do next.

 

[Steve BC]

What's its size in Windows Explorer?


Sorry, I didn't see your question the first time and didn't answer it.

The size is 406 MB, fairly close to that of the Outlook file. Both appear to
have largely the same content (no archives).

 

[Brian Tillman]

The size is 406 MB, fairly close to that of the Outlook file.

I'm afraid this confuses me, since I was asking what size Windows says your
PST is. I don't know how it can be "failrly close to that of the Outlook
file", since I was asking about "the Outlook file" itself - the one giving
you trouble.

 

[Steve BC]

There is a file archive.pst 406MB and a file Outlook.pst 417MB

 

[Brian Tillman]

There is a file archive.pst 406MB and a file Outlook.pst 417MB

Oh. OK. Let us know what happens when you try to recover the items.