I did something real stupid the other day....I re-boot my hard drive and of course nothing was backed up. I used recuva (btw..great program) and it recovered quite a bit of information...I did a regular scan first, then a deep scan. Funny thing is, it recovered most of my older files, but the newer ones are nowhere to be found. I am specifically looking for photos and an excel file that I need desperately and that would have been updated within 3 weeks prior to my stupidity. These files have never been deleted, just saved. Is there anything I am doing wrong? Also, I need to recover my outlook express emails? Does recuva also recover emails? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Have you tried the Scan for Non-deleted Files option? (Try this with normal scan, deep scan takes forever.)

Recuva does not recover individual emails. OE emails in XP - live and deleted - are kept in something like C:\Documents and Settings\Myname\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{DFF16927-88E6-4EAA-A097-460B7E65289B}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\Foldername.dbx, so if you could find this file using the above option you could recover it to another drive and then open it with OE.

Hi Augeas,
thank you very much for the information...I found the docs and they come up as Inbox.dbx etc...I just can't open them...any suggestions?

Outlook Express is notoriously bad with keeping things in the inbox.dbx file especially when it gets above a certain size.

It is well known that it can become corrupted during a compress operation if it is terminated prematurely.

It is best to create Folders to keep emails in by dragging them out of the Inbox to a suitable Folder.

Some help applications:
http://www.accuratesolution.net/aoeme.htm
http://www.mailnavigator.com/outlook-express-dbx-backup.html

You have recovered Inbox.dbx and it's somewhere safe...? I can't remember the actual details of attaching an existing folder to OE, you will have to rename it to something like Inboxold.dbx so it doesn't clash with your new Inbox, then either guess or wait for someone to supply the answer.

I actually do create folders and remove emails from my inbox into those folders. I will try the links and let you know what happens. Thanks for your help.

thanks for the input...I'll let you know what happens.

unfortunately it did not work, I was not able to recover any of my messages or contacts. Thanks any way.

Have you tried this

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/dbxviewer.html