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[MrGroove]

Mark Noland

Hey MrGroove……. I have mysteriously lost “sent” emails from March of 2008 to present….. the sent emails from March 2008 back further were still there. I just don’t know how approx 10-11 months got deleted or disappeared on their own. I have tried each and every option listed above, and none of them have worked for me. I have Microsoft 2007 that I recently installed.

I really need to recover, as I use them alot with my business to refer back to. I cannot say that I “deleted” them, because I would have had to click on each one of them to do that, about 150 emails, and that didn’t happen. I tried the import/export steps, and get to and click on .pst and it says, “cannot find this folder, verify the path and file name are correct….” I don’t know why it stops me at that point,….. then, I too, do not have the option, “Recover Deleted Items” as a choice. It’s just not there. So what do you recommend I try.

Thanks for any help. Mark

[MrGroove]

First, I have a few fact finding questions.

1) Is this your work email hosted on a company Microsoft Exchange / Email server? (For most companies, this is usually the case) or is this a home email account using an ISP for email? (connecting via POP or iMAP)?

2) When you say the email is "not there", I assume you are referring to your Sent Items folder. In other words, all you are doing is opening up your Sent Items folder and all the items in your Sent Items folder is not there except for March 2008 mail and older?

3) When you send new email, is a copy showing up in your Sent Items folder or is it missing as well?

4) Do you use a PST file to store any of your email?

Let's start there. Let's get this figured out!

[handspromo]

Hey MrGroovey... thanks for reply

1) It's my home computer that I run business on.... using ISP for email
2) Correct..... opening sent items folder, and present to Apr 2008 are missing
3) Yes, copy does show up when I send them now.
4) No, I do not use a pst file that I know of to store.... in other words, I have not gone anywhere to manually back up or store any of my files.

Thanks Mark

[alexmvp]

1) Because you use POP mail, the email is most likely never stored on your ISP email server. The only exception to this is if your using iMAP however almost all the time people connect with POP.

To find out, open Outlook. Click Tools, Account Settings. Here you will have a list of all your accounts. Under "TYPE" does it say IMAP/SMTP or POP/SMTP?

I mention this because that would rule out anyone at your ISP actually deleting your email.

Additionally, because your email server is not Microsoft Exchange, you can't use mrgrooves tip to recover deleted email.

With that all in mind... I'm stumped.

Sorry

[MrGroove]

Hey MrGroovey... thanks for reply

1) It's my home computer that I run business on.... using ISP for email
2) Correct..... opening sent items folder, and present to Apr 2008 are missing
3) Yes, copy does show up when I send them now.
4) No, I do not use a pst file that I know of to store.... in other words, I have not gone anywhere to manually back up or store any of my files.

Thanks Mark

Like Alex mentions, your probably using POP (would be my guess) or iMAP. Either way, the email should be stored in a .PST

That's the way the Outlook handles email as it's stored on your local machine. If that's the case you should be able to take steps to pull those emails out of the .PST file.

Go ahead and answer the questions from Alex and then we can begin taking the next steps to recovery.

[handspromo]

Hey.... It's on POP/SMTP......
And I did go thru steps to recover the .pst and got a comment pop up that said above comment..... when I got to certain point, and couldn't go further....
I really appreciate your help....... I have never done this before, and it is so great to have help.
Thanks Mark

[handspromo]

Hey, from Hands-On again...... my email does run on POP.
I have gone thru the steps of "file, import/export, import from another program or file, then click personal file folder .pst, then when I do that it says, " Cannot find this file. Verify the file and path are correct." I can then click on "Browse" and two files of "Outlook" and "Archive" come up then it goes back to box of "Next."
It just won't let me get to next step.

Also, remember I said my sent items were deleted from present back to April, then I had all ones after that. Came down just now, and ALL my sent emails are gone for last two years.
There must be a setting somewhere that is deleting my sent files automatically once a week on Friday nights.
That is the ONLY thing I can think is happening. When right click on "sent items" to check settings, I have it set on, "Do Not Archive Items in this Folder."
So what is happening to me.... this is crazy..... they just disappear, and I can't recover from the .pst because it won't let me go thru all steps to recovery.....
You alls help is greatly appreciated.

[shockersh]

Hey, from Hands-On again...... my email does run on POP.
I have gone thru the steps of "file, import/export, import from another program or file, then click personal file folder .pst, then when I do that it says, " Cannot find this file. Verify the file and path are correct." I can then click on "Browse" and two files of "Outlook" and "Archive" come up then it goes back to box of "Next."
It just won't let me get to next step.

Heya dude, you have a wicked problem! ouch! Sounds like you got the gremlins in a big way!!!

Anyway.... First remember, the Import/export options are used to add email from a .PST file or Archive file. Since you have neither, this is not going to help you. The only exception is if you have an Archive file out there.

Now remember, an Archive file is nothing more than an Automated feature of outlook which automatically copies email out of your inbox tree and copies it into another .pst file called Archive.pst. Normally this can be found in your Default Outlook folder.

On a Windows XP Box running Office 2007, it should be located in:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR-NAME-HERE\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

In there you will find your .PST and .OST files. Check to see if there is a file called Archive.pst hopefully that is where your email is.

Also, remember I said my sent items were deleted from present back to April, then I had all ones after that. Came down just now, and ALL my sent emails are gone for last two years.
There must be a setting somewhere that is deleting my sent files automatically once a week on Friday nights.
That is the ONLY thing I can think is happening. When right click on "sent items" to check settings, I have it set on, "Do Not Archive Items in this Folder."
So what is happening to me.... this is crazy..... they just disappear, and I can't recover from the .pst because it won't let me go thru all steps to recovery.....
You alls help is greatly appreciated.

Now that is odd.... You have NO ARCHIVE on but it seems like it's still archiving???

Ok try this:

1) Open Outlook
2) Click Tools - Account Settings
3) Highlight your POP account and Click Change
4) Click More Settings Button
5) Click Advanced Tab
6) What are the settings under Delivery?

Is it set to "Leave a copy of message on Server" ?

Take a screenshot and post it here.

Also, do these steps:

1) Open Outlook
2) Click Tools - Account Settings
3) Click Data Files Tab

Take a screenshot and post it here so I can look at it. This will tell us what files you have.

Thanks! Let's get this fixed!!!

[handspromo]

The box is checked to "save on server" it originally said for 20 days, but I unchecked it so hopefully if there is anything going there, it would stay on server longer.

I just cannot figure this out. I really appreciate you help and patience with all this. I think I do have some gremlins.
It doesn't make sense. If it was a virus, why would it take 8 months of "sent emails" away, then take the rest away one week later. The only thing I did differently if download Microsoft 2007, then I re-set my computer to stay on 24 hours, vs. turning of and sleeping during the night hours. Therefore the only think I can think, is there is some pre-set within Windows that is set to clean the sent box on Sat. mornings at 3am..... this is when it seemed like it could have happened. But, that still doesn't tell me where my "sent" messages are that I desparately need. My "In box" is still there and ok, thank God...... (Have do I copy that somewhere for safe-keeping???) I can only see how to copy to another folder in personal folders and it hasn't let me do that either.

Back to retrieving the emails, I have seemed to try everything, with help of some folks I know who are somewhat knowledgeable..... and I always get stopped towards end of any process..... for instance, I can get to my archive and personal folder file, but they won't open. Plus keep in mind, I have never "backed up" or "saved" any personal or archive files..... unless they automatically went there themselves for whatever reason, I don't know that they would be there.

Here are the files listed in "Data Files" when I say to "open" archive or personal.... these show up in small file box...
last.sharing.xml.obi file, 2kb.......archive 4,729 kb,.......outlook personal, 43,665 kb........outlook.pst.tmp file, 256kb,.......extend dat file, 1 kb........and outlook sharing.xml.obl file, 2 kb......that's it.
WHEN I click on them and try to open, it will say, cannot open file, go to.... one I tried to open in Word, and it gave me box of different countries..... and crap of de-code....others send you to "Microsoft" store and gets you to download different software programs, like "Read .pst files" that I believe you have to purchase, etc.... they just won't open in current state, I don't think...
If you could let me know how to send you photo or whatever on my screens, I will do that......
Thanks Mark

[handspromo]

I feel like if I could open one of those files I listed above, the emails would be either in archives or outlook folder.
But, it always sends me to websites.

I did find this out today. The deletion of the emails occurred because of a setting in McAfee. WHY, I don't know. In mcafee there is task scheduler. then Quick Clean task, then you can check boxes. For some reason the "sent and deleted items" boxes were checked. I have not idea why, because I haven't gone into the software and done any settings. Plus, the deletion on my sent emails only occurred on the last two Friday nights at 1am. First Friday (2/6)., it took the first 8 months of my "sents" then this past Friday, it took the rest of them. I virualed with India man today, and he said they are "GONE" I spoke with my DSL provider, and they don't have them, nor should they sent they disappear when I check my emails all day every day.
I tried to "RESTORE" on McAfee, back to the Thurs date of 2/5, but that didn't not get the emails back.
So now, looks like my only hope is that they are in the Archive Or Outlook personal folder .pst files that I listed above in my last posting here, that I just can't open, without possibly trying to purchase the "pushed-on-me" software, and hope that would work.

Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions??? Do you think since McAfee software actually did the deleting, that they are gone for good??? Wonder why it only deleted 8 months last week, and then the rest this past Friday??
Some good news is, I know what caused it and took off those settings. I don't know WHY it did that, but I got that part corrected.
Now, can I get my apporx. 250 sent items back that are somewhat priceless to me for my business.
Thanks so much. Mark Noland

[MrGroove]

I did find this out today. The deletion of the emails occurred because of a setting in McAfee. WHY, I don't know. In mcafee there is task scheduler. then Quick Clean task, then you can check boxes. For some reason the "sent and deleted items" boxes were checked. I have not idea why, because I haven't gone into the software and done any settings.

Are you kidding me?? Wow, that is just crazy. THANK YOU for filling me in on that one. VERY good information to know.

Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions??? Do you think since McAfee software actually did the deleting, that they are gone for good??? Wonder why it only deleted 8 months last week, and then the rest this past Friday??

Now, can I get my apporx. 250 sent items back that are somewhat priceless to me for my business.
Thanks so much. Mark Noland

OK

So like you said, the mystery is over. The good news is, I think we can get your data back.

So here's the deal. The way Outlook stores email when using a POP or iMAP connection from an ISP is the email is stored on your hard drive in a .PST file.

The good thing about a .PST file is it's essentially a small database. As you delete email, the email never actually get's removed from the .PST file. That is until you "Compress" the PST and it defrags so to speak the .PST files and removes all the deleted email.

With that said, it's very important you make a copy of all your .PST files ASAP. I'm going to guess all your data is your in .PST file your using for all your email. Of the ones you listed, it's probably the .PST file that's 43,665kb.

So plz go and quickly make a copy of your .PST files. Like Shocker said, you can probably find them here:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR-NAME-HERE\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Make a few copies of the .PST files and store one copy in a safe place you won't mess with.

With one of the other copies, you need to recover the email from the .PST file. To do this, you have a few options.

Once repaired, add the copy of the PST you ran the recover on to your Outlook Client and all your mail should be in the .PST file. Shocker wrote the steps here for How-To Add a PST file to your Outlook Account

1) Buy a product that will perform the recovery for you.

I found a few products that will probably work but my recommendation is to Google around, find a product and call them to review it's the right product for you.

2) Second option is to get a bit Geeky and follow the steps as outlined here:

http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/recover_deleted.htm

Essentially what you do is corrupt your .pst file then run scanpst.exe against it to repair it. Once repaired all your email should be back:

Recover the Deleted Items

If you don't know what a Hex editor is, you probably shouldn't be hex editing anything, but if you want to try, Google for "hex editor" - UltraEdit is probably the best and easiest one to use. Before doing anything to the PST with a Hex Editor, make a copy of the PST, or you may end up losing all of your e-mail.

1. Open the PST in the Hex editor.
2. Delete positions 7 through 13 with the spacebar. Since you're using hexadecimal numbering, this actually clears 13 characters in the following positions:
00007, 00008, 00009, 0000a, 0000b, 0000c, 0000d
0000e, 0000f, 00010, 00011, 00012, 00013
As you clear the characters, the editor displays the code “20” in their position.

3. Save the PST, it is now corrupted.
4. Run the Inbox Repair Tool, SCANPST.exe, to recover the file. Use Windows Search utility to find it. For additional information on the Inbox Repair Tool, see KB article 287497
5. The Inbox Repair Tool creates a backup and repairs the damage and recreates the PST.

Open the new PST in Outlook. The Deleted Items folder should now contain the deleted messages, unless Outlook has already deleted them for good by compacting the PST.

I personally tried out this method and it worked. 98% of all my email I deleted from my Test .PST file was recovered. Now it's not super simple and it took some playing with but I was able to do it in about 10 minutes.

If you need some help, just let me know. You can .zip up the file and send it to me and I'll fix it for you.

Keep us updated!

[handspromo]

Handspromo here...... man you all are so helpful..... I appreciate the efforts......
Here are some issues from you last postings...
1) I can not open any .pst file as it stands right now. Like there isn't one that exist to open.
2) I did go and save my current personal folders of In/Sent box, so now there is that .pst file only.
3) My McAfee was also set the "Defrag" once a month, and last did it on 2/15, and day after the rest of my sent emails
were deleted by McAfee. So that said, if files/hard drives were in fact "defragged" is it OVER. No chance for recovery of the sent emails deleted on 2/6 and 2/13?? And I can just move on and accept they are GONE FOREVER!! But in this process know I found some great folks who are very helpful and I learned alot from already!!!
4) I tried Shocker's steps to retrieve .pst file, and just does not open or work. It always take me to choices of general Outlook file or Archive File, and then neither one of them will open.
5)So, if I buy a software product that will "open .pst files," which should I buy, and is it worth it at this point. Or do we think the files are gone from defragging?
6) I could try being "geeky" and go through the steps of corrupting the .pst files that you gave me, but that scares me to death, because I'm not that geeky, I try to be, but can't, and if I lost my Inbox, the party is over!
7) Remember, it's "sent items folder" I'm after, not "deleted items" unless that's where we have to go to get because of McAfee "deleting sent items" on their own.
IF YOU think the files would still be around in .pst how would/could I "zip" them up and send to you to look at. That's something I really don't know anything about.

THANKS again for trying to help me out........ although what's happened is such a hassle, this part of pursuing with your help has been somewhat fun and very educational!! There still may be hope for me... THanks Mark Noland

[MrGroove]

Handspromo here...... man you all are so helpful..... I appreciate the efforts......

Anytime

1) I can not open any .pst file as it stands right now. Like there isn't one that exist to open.

This is important. You cannot open a .PST file from the Windows Explorer / File Manager. You can only open .PST files from inside of Outlook. It's an Outlook file so it MUST be opened up from inside of Outlook.

2) I did go and save my current personal folders of In/Sent box, so now there is that .pst file only.

Ok. It looks like you saved the emails inside Outlook into a new PST file when actually what I wanted you to do was backup all your .PST files at a FILE level (not at an email level. So, close Microsoft Outlook and Navigate to your Outlook folder in your Profile using Windows Explorer.

To Open Windows Explorer,
Right Click the Start Button and Click Explorer to open Windows Explorer

Then navigate to your Outlook Folder where your .PST files are stored. It should be C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR-NAME-HERE\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Once you get to this folder, you should see all the Outlook files. Take all of them and ZIP them up. To zip them, go grab a copy of 7Zip from here: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sevenzip/7z465.exe

Install it. Once installed you should be able to select all the files in the Outlook folder at the path above. Select all of them, Right Click and compress them.

Please confirm if you find this directory using Windows Explorer. If the path cannot be found, you should try this method to find the file:

1) Open Outlook
2) Click Tools - Account Settings
3) Click Data Files Tab

This will show you all your PST files and where they are located. Follow the paths to the Outlook PST files. ZIP them up.

3) My McAfee was also set the "Defrag" once a month, and last did it on 2/15, and day after the rest of my sent emails
were deleted by McAfee. So that said, if files/hard drives were in fact "defragged" is it OVER. No chance for recovery of the sent emails deleted on 2/6 and 2/13?? And I can just move on and accept they are GONE FOREVER!! But in this process know I found some great folks who are very helpful and I learned alot from already!!!

Hmm... My guess is McAfee only defrags or compresses the Hard Drive, not the actual .PST files. That would be way to groovy for a product like McAfee. We should be ok still.

IF YOU think the files would still be around in .pst how would/could I "zip" them up and send to you to look at. That's something I really don't know anything about.

Zip them up like I mentioned above. Once you have them, let me know here.

[handspromo]

Hey McGroovey...... When I went to download the 7zip.... I got a big time security warning and the publisher is unknown. Really worries me.
I did get to that Microsoft Outlook Personal File of 43,665 kb I mentioned before, which we both are pretty sure could be the ONLY possible place these deleted emails I'm looking for are. If they aren't there, I would be finished looking, and it just will not allow me to open up that file for some reason.
What do you think about the 7 zip?

[MrGroove]

7Zip is fine. It's a great app and safe to use. No worries about it being a security issue.

Zip up the files and let me know when done.

Thanks!

[handspromo]

Sorry I've been a while.... out of town....
If they sent files that were deleted are still around, it's down to being in that Microsoft Personal Folder File that I can't open up for some reason. I think some .pst software could do it, but I don't want to fool with.
So, after updating my "Computer Source Store" where I go, he understands issues, thinks he can open it up, and we'll see if they are still around.
I've reached the point where you all have taken me as far as we can go, and I really appreciate all of your help.
It's been a great learning experience.
Thanks again. Mark

[shockersh]

HI Mark,

Tell the computer guy you have working on it that you cannot open that PST file because that's the file Outlook uses when Outlook opens and stores all your POP email.

Just make sure when he does a recover, he uses that .PST file and all your email should be recovered no problem.

In the end, I think your doing the right thing. You took it as far as you could and it's now time to let a professional take it the rest of the way. No shame in that!

I hope it works out for ya bro!

[hlhamark]

I have had the same problem as was discussed by Mark, All sent e-mails were deleted by Mcafee clean-up program. My situation is different I believe because the computer is connected through Micosoft Exchange and the files (pst?) are stored somewhere else on a server and not on my local computer. When I go through explorer and find the files stored on my local comp. there are archive pst files and an ost file. Is the ost file the same as a pst file? If i save this file somewhere else and rename it as a pst will i be able to open it and maybe recover these deled sent items? I would really appreciate your help in this matter, I am not sure what to do because of the "excahnge" element added in here.

[MrGroove]

I have had the same problem as was discussed by Mark, All sent e-mails were deleted by Mcafee clean-up program. My situation is different I believe because the computer is connected through Micosoft Exchange and the files (pst?) are stored somewhere else on a server and not on my local computer.

You have it partly right. With using Outlook with Microsoft Exchange server your email is stored on the server "ONLY". There is no local copy sitting in a PST file unless you either 1: Manually create a .PST file and move/copy your mailbox email into it or 2: You use the automated Archive feature of outlook which creates an archive.pst (sometimes the name will vary) and moves email into it off the exchange mailbox and into the archive .pst file.

When I go through explorer and find the files stored on my local comp. there are archive pst files and an ost file. Is the ost file the same as a pst file?

I think I explained the Archive PST files above. Let me know if you need more info. The OST files are a close cousin to the .PST files however they are not the same.

With Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, you can enable what's called "Cache mode". This keeps a copy of your Exchange Mailbox on your local PC by storing the email in a .OST file. Anytime Outlook connects to exchange the OST file is compared against your live exchange mailbox and they are both updated.

[/quote]
If i save this file somewhere else and rename it as a pst will i be able to open it and maybe recover these deleted sent items? I would really appreciate your help in this matter, I am not sure what to do because of the "exchange" element added in here.[/quote]

Where were the mails you are trying to restore? Were they in your main Sent Items in your INBOX or in a .PST archive folder?

[hlhamark]

They were is my Sent Items folder. However, since my last post, I came across this discussion http://www.groovypost.com/howto/microso ... ny-folder/
and it has solved my problem. I edited the registry as desribed, which in turn added the tab "recover deleted e-mail" under edit tab in Outlook 2007 and like magic, there were all my sent e-mails that had been deleted using the McAfee quick clean program. It was quite a relief! Thank you so much for these posts! The McAfee website offered no solution, even in their forums. The geeky side of me still does wonder though, can an ost be converted to a pst corrupted and then recovered? Oh well, I'm glad I don't have to find out!

[shockersh]

The geeky side of me still does wonder though, can an ost be converted to a pst corrupted and then recovered? Oh well, I'm glad I don't have to find out!

First I would convert the .OST file to a .PST file using this tool: http://cid-bc0d2336ee092c7e.skydrive.li ... st2pst.exe

I've not used it since Outlook 2003 (long time) so if you try it on Outlook 2007 post back here as I'm curious....

After it's converted run the scanpst.exe against the PST file and all the deleted mail should be recovered and sitting in the PST file.

Just a quick note about PST and OST files. Essentially these are just databases that grow as needed. When you delete mail in a PST or OST file however, the file does not shrink as the data never actually get's deleted from the file. that's where scanpst.exe comes into play. It will scan the file and rebuild the mail and folder structure for you and tadaa, all the deleted mail is gone.

The only exception to this is if you run a COMPRESS .pst command on the PST file from the Outlook Properties folder. That will rebuild the PST file and nuke all the old data in it.

Hope this helps.