How do I retrieve Outlook Express emails after a system restore?

[Paithar]

I have a friend that supposedly got a virus on her pc and so she did a system restore (with the cd that came with the system). Well, because of this, her Outlook Express no longer shows all of the emails she had.

Is there a way to get those emails back? Or is she just screwed?

 

[bashPenguin]

So it sounds like no backup of data was made and she used a restore CD to basically blow away the existing OS install and reinstall, and that all her emails had been downloaded and saved locally but are now toast with the old install.

Information from this link could be useful unless the system restore did what I just said:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/270670

You might have to bust out data recovery tools like getdataback, and tell her to stop using the comp until you are ready to try a scan.

Good luck.

 

[BillR]

If during the restore process she chose the option to save the old installation the missing files can be found in the old directories. Usual names are winold winback etc.

If she chose not to save then as the previous poster said, try data recovery, but I wouldn’t hold out much hope.

It is also possible that some of that email is still on the server, again depending on how it was configured originally. She would need to log in to her service account and check for any remaining emails, however, I don’t hold out much hope there either.

One last ditch possibility might be during restore the missing files might be in a sub directory right under or on top of the new outlook express data files.

If she has already downloaded some new email to do C:/program files/outlook express and see what the file type and do a global search of the hard drive.

That’s about as far as I can take you on this one.

Luck

 

[Paithar]

Yeah, she got the virus and did the restore before talking to anyone else about what her options were. I was afraid that she had probably lost everything but I said I'd check and see what I could do.