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My emails, etc have disappeared???

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cturner01

Technical User
Aug 1, 2006
29
AU
My computer recently froze on me and then when the machine restarted on about the 3rd time, all of my data disappeared. The computer kept on restarting without going into Windows. My emails, Outlook address book data, accounting software data have disappeared. The my documents folder contents and software that was installed are still there. Well I am wondering if it is possible to get all of that back now.

Also I have setup an email account through Microsoft Office Outlook, and then when I press the send/receive button this error comes up:
The object failed. An object could not be found. That was after I discovered that I lost all of the above. Can someone please help me solve these problems? Thanks in advance.
 
Also Windows can't install the updates that it downloads.
 
How much free disk space do you have?

Try opening Outlook in safe mode and see if your data is there. Go to Start> Run > Outlook /safe.

Twist

===========================================
Everything will be OK in the end.
If it's not OK, then it's not the end
 
Your old profile probably got corrupted and windows created a new one... meaning your data may not be lost.

You can tell if this is the case by opening My Computer and going to C:\Documents and Settings

You will see a few folders in here and if windows created a new profile you will see your username twice with the newer one usually haveing something added to it.

 
I did try opening Outlook in safe mode like you said twiSSt. But no emails or email addresses where there.

PcLinuxGuru, when I do start Windows it says the profile may be corrupted. I did look in C:/Documents and Settings and there is one folder with my first name and another with my full name. My files that are really important to me are still there, but the emails, email addresses, accounting data, etc I can't seem to track down.

If I do a system restore via xp's system restore, would my emails, etc come back?
 
If you search for .pst files, are any found? I would look for those before performing a system restore, and copy them to an external drive or burn them.

It should be located in one of the folders you found with your name, check the dates on the folders and copy the olderst ones.

Twist

===========================================
Everything will be OK in the end.
If it's not OK, then it's not the end
 
See if anything is stored here C:\Documents and Settings\Usernamexxxx\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook, and select the Outlook.pst.

You may need to show both Hidden and System files via Folder Options/ View.
 
And to get your profile back, there are a number of ways.
One is to edit registry [if you dare] HKLM\software\microsoft\windows NT\current version\profilelist and change the path
or
logon as administrator and copy all except user.dat user.man etc to new profile
or
CopyProfile Tool
User Profile Wizard 2.5 [FREE]
MoveUser Utility

Personally I usually backup format and reload. Thats why it's nice to partition the drive and keep your documents on e.g D: including move My Documents to permanently D:

BTW you may want to check event viewer [start -> Run -> eventvwr] for any signs of HDD failure etc
 
I would get everything off that hard drive as soon as possible. Put it in another machine and copy from it there.
 
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