Deleted my complete outlook data.

I've lost the entire contents of Outlook. I have XP installed. I'll put things down pointwise:

• I formatted C drive about 3 months ago. The tech guy created a backup for my Outlook 2003 on D: The computer was working fine. The backup was something like 1.03 GB
• Couple of days ago, I deleted the backup folder thinking it only held the pst files data. My mistake was that I hadnt created another backup file for outlook before deleting the original backup.
• Yes, I also deleted from Recycle Bin.
• Next morning I clicked on the Outlook icon, and all my emails, data, personal contacts, everything was gone.Outlook was clean as a slate.
• After calling the tech guy, I found that he had created an association between Outlook and backup file on D: (the one I deleted) and not with the C drive. Therefore all data from my outlook folder is lost. I believed at the time of the deletion that I was only getting rid of backup data, and not the whole package.
• I ran datarecover on the advise of a co-worker. Couldnt locate the backup folder.
• On coming to MG, I read that the more I use my computer the less the chance of recovery. As of now, I'm trying to sort this out with a friend. But also want to have your advise. Since I'm beginning to believe that he can't recover it.

Sorry for the long message. Just wanted to send info that is easy to use.

 

The tech guy had placed your .pst file on D rather than on C, so it wasn't a backup at all, it was the original. The advice about not using the comp is right, at least as far as the D drive is concerned, as although your deleted pst file may still be there, its space is marked as unallocated, so every time you write to D you risk overwriting your file.

The best file recovery program imo is Recuva. Run it as soon as possible and if it finds your file be sure to recover it to C, as recovering to D risks destroying the very file you are trying to recover.

 

Thanks Earthling.
Yes, you put it better...the original was on D.
I'll try to run Recuva and see what happens. Any particular thing sI should be careful of while running Recuva.

 

Apart from the advice already given, no, you should find it quite straightforward. I think the odds aren't so good with such a large file, but let us know how you get on.

btw, the tech was only being sensible putting your data file on a separate partition from the OS. It's just a pity he didn't explain the logic to you.

 

Okay, my friend ran a bunch of recovery software. No help.
We tried Recuva. The link on MG did not work, so went to Piriform and downloaded Recuva to desktop.
It performed much better than some of the other software tried. It even showed as recoverable files deleted over years. These were all jpg, word, excel files etc. Unfortunately, no pst files.
Any other advice. Should I use Recuva with some specific setting. I just ran it with the deep scan option on D drive, and also on the Recycle Bin.