How to Recover Deleted Mail
You selected the email and hit the "trash" button. It is gone. Then, with a flash of "Yikes!" you remember that that email contained specifications from a client for an upcoming job or your vacation confirmation numbers for next week. What now? There are a few ways to get the text or a copy of your email back from the garbage dump in one piece.
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Instructions
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Recover the email from your "Trash" or "Deleted" folder. This works if you have not emptied the trash/deleted folder yet, nor chosen that particular email to be deleted forever. An option in Outlook also allows you to permanently get rid of emails in the deleted file upon closing of the program, so if you've got that option enabled, then you'll need to recover the message before closing the program. Select the email from the trash heap and choose "Move to inbox," "Restore" or a similar option from your email account options. In web-based email accounts, deleted mail remains in the Trash folder for a set amount of time before it gets deleted forever. If you check the folder soon after you've deleted the email, you could be in luck.
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Check your "Sent" folder to see if you forwarded the email to someone else. Sent emails go into this folder by default usually, unless you have changed your email account to delete copies of outgoing emails.
Look for other emails in your inbox or trash folder that are replies to the original email conversation. One email reply may contain only the information you need.
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Download email-recovery software that can help restore deleted emails. These programs are designed for specific computer-based email programs, and you should use the one designed for your email program, such as Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Vista Mail. Recovering deleted emails from a web-based email program will not work with these types of programs.
These programs work by repairing PST files (personal data store in Outlook). The recovery program will show you which emails it recovered. You can then save the repaired file.
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Use OutlookFIX or a similar program to recover lost e-mails from Microsoft Outlook. Download Mail Recovery Express if you are a Microsoft Outlook Express or Windows Mail user. You can see which emails will be recovered before you buy either program. R-Mail for Outlook and R-Mail for Outlook Express are two similar email-recovery programs available for purchase and download online. Recover My Email can be used with both Outlook and Outlook Express. Try it free before you purchase. You will be able to view files that can be recovered before you buy the program. These are just a few of the many email-recovery programs available.
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