The two most common reasons for what you describe is disruption of the
compacting process, (never touch anything until it's finished), or bloated
folders. More on that below.

(It would appear, bloated folders was the cause here).

Why does OE insist on compacting folders when I close it?:
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#compact

Why Mail Disappears:
http://www.insideoe.com/problems/bugs.htm#mailgone

About File Corruption:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx

Recovery tools:

If you are using a fully patched version of XP/SP2, see:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918069/en-us

If you have downloaded the patch at the above site, you would have a
temporary backup of your dbx files in the recycle bin.

If not:

DBXpress run in Disk Mode is the best chance to recover messages:
http://www.oehelp.com/DBXpress/Default.aspx

And see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#4

A general warning if you don't want to lose your messages in the futu

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupted. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move
your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user created
folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible.

And if your mail is so important to you, backup often.

Backup and Resto

http://www.insideoutlookexpress.com/backup/

http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx

And this good one click backup program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Frabato" wrote in message
...
Need your help. First the situation:

Saturday late morning, as I am preparing to leave, I leave my computer
while
it begins compacting my Outlook Express. I clicked yes on an automatic
prompt box and left the computer alone until I came back in the evening.

When I get back as I am scanning my e-mail folders, I notice that my Sent
e-mails in my Sent folder from 2/13//2006 t0 11/17/2006 have disappeared
or
been deleted. FYI: my stored sent e-mails go all the way back to
8/31/2002
when I first bought this computer.

Have done two System Restores to previous safe dates to no avail. It does
not affect files obviously. Before when I used the Go Back from Norton, I
could easily revert back and get them all back. Since I do not use Norton
anymore, what Microsoft program will allow me to do a retrieval?

Questions:
1. How do I retrieve these e-mails? They are the most important to me
because they contain a lot of needed information.

2. How did it choose (if it did) a specific time frame (2/13//2006 t0
11/17/2006) from a specific folder (Sent)???? I've never seen this
before.

Please advise. Thank you in a advance.