HELP - Deleted inbox contents - can I recover them?

[Lanew]

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???

Thanks

 

[DL]

Your backups
Its pretty hard to 'accidently' do anything

 

[VanguardLH]

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.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

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).

Or until they're overwritten by new items, since the white space is available
for reuse.

 

[VanguardLH]

VanguardLH wrote ...


Or until they're overwritten by new items, since the white space is available
for reuse.

You sure? Under SQL and other database programs, delete-marked items
are not overwritten. This is why you can use commands to change their
status to un-delete them. New records must occupy unused disk space
(from whatever disk space has been allocated to the dabatase). That's
why you'll get database errors telling you that you are running short or
have ran out of usable disk space for the database because all those
records with "Delete" status still occupy physical space. That's why
you have to periodically run a Purge on the database to physically
remove the delete-marked records.

The reason Outlook periodically performs a compact is that the database
would eventually grow beyond its manageable size if the delete-marked
items weren't delete. That excessive growth would not occur if the disk
space occupied by delete-marked items were eligible for reuse.

 

[wangdong]

Hi,

Try the data-recover tool called Advanced Outlook Repair. It can help
to undelete the emails you delete by mistake. You can download a free
demo version at http://www.datanumen.com/aor/aor.exe .

And visiting http://www.datanumen.com/aor/ can get detailed
information about Advanced Outlook Repair.

Wangdong