Is there any way to recover an e-mail message that was accidentally
erased from my Netscape Communicator inbox more than a year ago? (I
accidentally compacted the inbox.)
I did not have any file recovery utility installed. I use Netscape
Communicator 4.61 on a Mac with OS 8.1
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestion

---

Request for Question Clarification by lot-ga on 02 Aug 2002 14:52 PDT

Hello,
compacting the inbox simply reduces the file size doesn't it?
The trade off is when you read the compacted emails is that it is
slower to open?
The critical thing is did you trash the email message in question
(which sends it to the trash bin  - a 'buffer' zone') if you did not
delete it in the trash bin it should still be there in the trash?
regards lot-ga

---

Request for Question Clarification by jasonm1-ga on 03 Aug 2002 09:14 PDT

How big is the hard disk and how often is this machine used, and for
what purposes. Have you upgraded the OS since the deletion of the
file?

---

Clarification of Question by delalune-ga on 03 Aug 2002 15:38 PDT

At the time, I thought the 'compacting' would just compress the inbox
folder; that's why i agreed (i was asked if i wanted  to 'compact'
probably because I had many messages in there). But the latest few
hundred messages simply disappeared (I did not empty the trash
folder).
 They were not in the trash folder. They were not in the inbox or any
other folder. I found in the help section of netscape that
'compacting' a folder is a way to permanently delete it.

Since then, I've used the computer fairly often for work; I have
deleted a few hundred e-mail messages the 'normal' way (by putting
them in the trash
folder and then emptying it). I also have occasionnally deleted other
files from my HD as well (HD capacity: 2 GB).
I have not upgraded the OS.

Because the folder had been 'compacted', I wondered if it had somehow
been kept somewhere. But where? It seems very unlikely, but I thought
I
would just ask...

After a year's time, there usually will have been so much saving and
deleting and re-saving on your hard drive that the chance of
recovering such a file is slim to none. Unless this computer has been
sitting virtually untouched for the past year, your file was probably
overwritten long ago.

PinkFreud is right - Unless you're computers been in a time capsul
you're chances are zero.

But i'm wondering about how you 'erased it'? You said you compacted it
- Dosn't that mean it's kept somewhere else?

-Murpg-Ga

Sorry - it's long gone.

What happens is this:  You have a flat text file (INBOX) that has your
e-mail in it.  It has an index (INBOX.pst).  When you delete an
e-mail, the index reference for it is marked deleted.  The text of the
message is also moved to the TRASH folder, and a reference is
recreated in the TRASH.pst index.

So far, still recoverable.

Now, if you empty the trash, the text of the e-mail is removed from
the TRASH folder, and the TRASH.pst index is cleared.  But, the
original text of the e-mail is still in the INBOX file

Now, if you compress your folders, all the messages you deleted are
actually removed from the INBOX file, and their references cleared
from the INBOX.pst index file.

So, it's now gone.

If you stopped immediately, powered down the computer and took the
hard drive to a recovery specialist, they may be able to reconstruct
the bits from the residual magnetic structures on the disc.

But, after a year, all that data is long gone.

Sorry to give you a negative answer.  

BTW, all information is correct as of Netscape 3.0.  Newer versions
may do things differently.