recover deleted outlook express emails

[bookbuyer]

During an automatic "To Free Up Disk Space, Outlook Express Can Compact Messages," on my XP, SP3 computer, 2 years of emails vanished (current = 9/15, most recent email = 1/13).

No invisible "bak files" to restore from, and, no files are in my trash can.

Is there a "file recovery software" that I can use that you recommend? And if I do use recovery software, what NAME of file am I looking for -- e.g. when it recovers a hundred thousand files, what am I looking for?

Thank you.

p.s. please no chastising -- I already know I need to use the new Windows, etc., etc., I feel bad enough already, thank you.

 

[hang-the-9]

This would depend if the actual file is missing, not if Outlook Express just lost the email in the process. Recuva is a good free file recovery tool, you can also check for older versions of the Outlook Express file.

Follow these steps to find where your files are and see if there are other copies of it, also if you right-click on the file and go to Properties you may see a "previous version" option, you can try that.