Windows update - lost emails -help!

[Deleted User 2747]

My laptop recently had a windows update and it has removed all of may emails from the files they were stored in!

I am talking about years and years of emails saved for very important reasons! Does anyone know how/if I can get them back? I have looked on-line but there is not a lot of good information.

[PockWhite]

Frankie, Mr +15 is a computer whizzo!
Send him a pm he may well know?
Good luck.

[BrighouseWhite]

You could try going into the control panel, then system & security and from there you should be able to restore your computer to an earlier time. Just make sure you choose a time before the updates. Hope this helps.

[Deleted User 728]

When you say a "Windows Update" do you mean you upgrade to a new system, like from 8 to 10 ??
Or do you just mean the regular incremental updates ?

If it's the latter, it's highly irregular for anything on the machine to be removed during updating.

If it's the former, the first place to look is in the folder entitled "Windows Old" which should be on your C: drive - it contains the vestiges of the previous version of Windows, prior to the new one being installed, so anything that the update saved may be in there.

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Next thing to do is to check your email account itself.
If you use a web-based browser like Yahoo, G-Mail, etc then have a look using the search mail facility :



Type the name of the person you were emailing to trawl through the messages between you.
This should go back years, so you may find them still on the "system" - ie the email's server.

Also, if it's one you sent try searching the "sent" folder.
If it's one you saved in a specific sub-folder of your inbox, try there too.
I organise all my emails that way and keep them under categories like family, work, car insurance, etc.

____________________________________________________




Last resort, there are some companies out there that offer a data retrieval service. I've never used one nor know anyone who has, but I think it's do with actually going through the physical hard disk of your computer.
Traces are left on there apparently, but I really don't know much about it ..


We've all done something like this at some point and there's a lesson to be learnt : save everything somewhere, be it on an external HD or the cloud or just through the use of the email's servers like I do. Having said that, I have all my music and movies on external drives and the music also on my laptop so I've got two versions. I update them every six months or so, just running it overnight.

I hope this helps - the crucial thing is whether you're using the same email address as received the messages and that it's a webmail server.
If they're both "yes" then you should be able to salvage them, even if it takes you an hour or two to go through hundreds of old emails.


Good luck !

[Another Northern Soul]

What a gent, Rigger

In addition to this Frankie, Windows has forums and Help centres for all manner of problems & issues with their systems, I can't imagine your problem is unique, just contact them.

[Deleted User 728]

What a gent, Rigger

Thanks, mate

[Another Northern Soul]

Just stating the facts, m'lud

[Deleted User 728]

I'm just wondering what it is that's been lost ??

Love letters ?

Accounts ??

FM tactical formations ???

[Aqua-]

Hi frankie,
Good question by rigger about the update, and good guide.
I have done the same to save files for my father sevral years back. What program are you using to manage emails? If it is outlook office it generates a file with an ending pst i believe.
Just write on google: outlook pst file location.
You should search for the file in the old windows (like rigger explained) and paste it to the new feserved location

[Deleted User 2747]

Thanks to you all for all of the advice and help.

I sent a 'feedback' message to Microsoft yesterday and it came up that they were aware of missing emails. WHether or not they will be sending help I will not be holding my breath.

I do file my emails into different categories. Some were personal (Not love letters!) Some were related to account registrations on the internet. Some were related to my teaching training and qualification.

It was a Windows 10 update.

I tried to restore to before the update but it failed for some reason. (Twice)

All of my files were emptied including the sent files. Only the in-box and deleted files were still there!

I am going to try searching files, though I started this yesterday with no luck so far.

Thanks again.