Fekking computers!

[Beemer]

Agh, I was cleaning out some old emails today and thought I had clicked on the deleted folder, so I did a Control A and deleted the lot... only to discover I had actually just permanently deleted every email in my inbox!

I thought I had scheduled backups on my computer but that appears not to have happened, so I have no backup copy (don't worry, I am in the process of backing up all my stuff right NOW so it won't happen again). I did manage to do a Find and recover all the files that had originally arrived in my inbox but then been moved to named folders in the inbox, but I had to move them all manually from the inbox to those folders again. And unfortunately EVERY other email that should have been in my inbox appears to have disappeared forever. None of the ones that arrived today are there, nor ones from weeks/months ago.

I asked on Press F1 but haven't had any luck there - I just got told I should have done backups...

Has anyone else been a moron like me before and deleted the contents of their inbox? If so, did you manage to recover the files? How? And did it involve lots of money and a computer expert? (Hopefully not...)

[merv]

On deleting them from Inbox they should have gone to your Deleted Items folder or were you somehow deleting the whole mailbox?

If so you should have been able to pull them back from there into the Inbox or did you already exit Outlook (presume you are using Outlook) with the delete items on exit mode turned on?

[3umph]

don't ya just hate it when that happens

[98tls]

Whats this "email" thing you speak of?

[3umph]

I had a problem upgrading laptops and with using multiple computers between work and home so now using gmail and have all my 8 odd emails forwarded to one account so no need to store emails on your PC and can access them from any PC

[Gremlin]

Assuming you're using Outlook, as merv said, deleting the email places it in the deleted items. Deleting a folder places it as a sub folder of deleted items.

Shift + Delete will permanently delete an item, no questions asked.

Next question is... how do you collect your emails? There are options to keep the mail on the server for x number of days (or permanently) or to remove it from the email server when you take a copy. Therefore, there could be a copy somewhere, depending on how you have it set up.

Yep... always easier to convince a client on spending for backups once they have lost stuff

[Forest]

1. Buy a mac.
2. Plug in an external disk.
3. Enable the built-in "Time Machine" backup software.
4. Relax knowing that this will never be a problem again.

[Max Preload]

Assuming you're using Outlook, as merv said, deleting the email places it in the deleted items. Deleting a folder places it as a sub folder of deleted items.

Does Outlook have an option to empty the deleted items folder on exit? I wouldn't know because I don't use it.

[3umph]

Does Outlook have an option to empty the deleted items folder on exit? I wouldn't know because I don't use it.

yip.... its in the options

[Mr Merde]

If you are using Outlook then go to tools and click on Recover deleted mail

This will give you the option of getting the ones back you need.

[Max Preload]

yip.... its in the options

So if the OP is using Outlook presumably, unless this option is enabled, the missing emails will still be there.

I have my email client Eudora Pro set to empty the Trash on exit.

[Indiana_Jones]

-Indy

[The Stranger:Me]

Shift + Delete will permanently delete an item, no questions asked.

No, they can still be recovered from a PST file if "permanently" deleted - in most cases.

Use a hex editor to change the first n bytes to zeros then run the scanpst tool over the file.

Don't recall what n is off hand, but a search of the Internet should yield the answer.

[Gremlin]

mmmmm I love dealing with exchange and servers that archive a copy of every email

[Beemer]

Not sure exactly how I managed to do it, but shift + delete was the most likely answer! I had thought I was in the deleted folder (but must have been the inbox) when I did a Control A to delete everything - so when I then looked in the deleted folder, it was full, and I STUPIDLY decided to do a Control A again, and permanently delete everything. Then when I switched back to the inbox, it was empty.

I tried downloading an email recovery program (Recovery Toolbox) but when I checked what it had recovered, there were 14 old emails instead of the 100 or more recent ones, so I didn't opt to pay for it so I could get them back.

As for the hex editor stuff, total foreign language, so I'll have to leave that I'm afraid! I had set up my computer to do a weekly backup and a daily backup of Outlook but for some reason it had not been doing this. It is meant to do it when I shut Outlook but that doesn't appear to be happening either, so I'll have another look.

To be honest, apart from a few emails that came through this week, there probably wasn't anything there I'd lose sleep over. It was just bloody annoying though!