Outlook 2003 .pst files disappeared

[C Brown]

I recently migrated my system over to a new drive, and
with the exception of a couple of minor problems
everything seemed to be going fine. This morning when I
opened Outlook 2003 (I had done this without incident
several times since setting up the new drive), I got
error messages and prompts asking me to specify where
my .pst files were. Turns out the directory C:\Documents
and Settings\[Profile Name]\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook is empty. Just plain empty.

I did a search on .pst files on the drive and there, um,
aren't any.

Since I last used Outlook successfully I was using
regedit to remove some keys associated with a USB
receiver / cordless keyboard / cordless mouse that were
misbehaving. The instructions I was following were:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/support/products/documen
t/CA/EN,CRID=1796,contentid=4545,contentid2=6997,showalldo
cuments=0#remove

Those are the only changes I made.

I tried restoring the .pst files from a backup I made
just after the reinstall, but, alas, there were't any in
the mbf.

TIA for any suggestions

 

[Brian Tillman]

I did a search on .pst files on the drive and there, um,
aren't any.

Did you enable searching in hidden folders?

 

[C Brown]

Yes.

Thanks for your reply

-----Original Message-----


Did you enable searching in hidden folders?

 

[C Brown]

I just ran VirtualLab data recovery and it located the
files. However, I found that my .dbx files from when I
used to use Outlook Express have also been deleted, as
has my address book. Is there a virus that deletes these
files? Have I been hacked? It seems a little odd to me
that these similar types of files would disappear all at
once, even though they're not stored in the same
directory.

-----Original Message-----
I recently migrated my system over to a new drive, and
with the exception of a couple of minor problems
everything seemed to be going fine. This morning when I
opened Outlook 2003 (I had done this without incident
several times since setting up the new drive), I got
error messages and prompts asking me to specify where
my .pst files were. Turns out the directory C:\Documents
and Settings\[Profile Name]\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook is empty. Just plain empty.

I did a search on .pst files on the drive and there, um,
aren't any.

Since I last used Outlook successfully I was using
regedit to remove some keys associated with a USB
receiver / cordless keyboard / cordless mouse that were
misbehaving. The instructions I was following were:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/support/products/docume n

t/CA/EN,CRID=1796,contentid=4545,contentid2=6997,showalld

o
cuments=0#remove

Those are the only changes I made.

I tried restoring the .pst files from a backup I made
just after the reinstall, but, alas, there were't any in
the mbf.

TIA for any suggestions
.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I just ran VirtualLab data recovery and it located the
files. However, I found that my .dbx files from when I
used to use Outlook Express have also been deleted, as
has my address book. Is there a virus that deletes these
files? Have I been hacked?

More than likely, you did something during your migration that deleted the
files. I don't know of any virus or trojan not caught by any recent
anti-virus program that will do what you describe.