How to Restore a Deleted Mailbox
Most likely you have accidentally deleted your
INBOX by using F-Secure Anti-Virus. Whenever a virus or some other
malware comes through email, your Anti-Virus detects it and suggests
different kind of methods for getting rid of the malware in question.
Now, malware arrived in one email, and that email
went to your INBOX, which in many cases is just a one file that
contains all incoming emails. This depends on the email client you use,
for example Outlook and Outlook Express put emails to one single file,
called inbox.pbx or similar.
Your Anti-Virus has offered few methods to get
rid of the malware, disinfect, delete and rename. Disinfection of an
email inbox file is often not recommended, since those files are
usually very complicated and very sensitive for modification. Easiest
way is just to delete those emails that contain a virus or other sort
of malware.
If you selected delete, it means that you have
now deleted your INBOX file and all your received emails with that.
NOTE: Manual does not recommend on
deleting email files.
F-Secure Anti-Virus does not use usual method for
deleting a file containing malware, so the file cannot be restored from
trash can.
Important
NOTE: Primary restoring method is always
your backup!
NOTE: Windows XP users, you can restore
your files by using operating system feature called "System Restore",
refer your Windows XP documentation!
NOTE: Adviced methods for restoring your
INBOX file might not work! Recovery of your email is not guaranteed!
How to restore the mailbox
Even when a file is deleted from your hard disk
by F-Secure Anti-Virus, it is not for ever gone. There is a SMALL
chance to get it back.
To restore your file:
1. When you notice your emails are
gone, stop any further usage of the computer! (Best is if you can stop
using the computer right after you selected delete from F-Secure
Anti-Virus) However, do not switch off your computer!
2. Find a software meant specifically
for file recovery purposes. There are many and F-Secure does not
recommend any specific software. Search for "File Recovery" and
"Windows File Undelete" or with similar terms. There are also
evaluation versions, even free versions of such software.
3. It is recommended to do all other
usage with other computer and leave yours just to be, further usage
might lead to overwriting of your just deleted INBOX, which makes it
almost impossible to recover.
4. Recommended method is to install
file recovery software to a floppy disk, bring that floppy disk to your
own "victim" computer and start file recovery software directly from
the floppy disk. Still, try to keep usage of that computer as
minimalistic as possible.
5. Run the file recovery software and
use either a scan to find recoverable files or pinpoint the location of
deleted file for this software. There might also be a chance to look
for certain filenames among recoverable files.
What to look for:
Filenames containing word or words like
"inbox", "mail" or extensions like ".pst", ".dbx" or ".mbx". These are
just examples, you will probably spot the correct recoverable file
easily.
6. When you have found the correct
file, for example inbox.pst, recover or undelete it (depending on the
software, feature for restoring the file might called something else).
NOTE: If the software warns or
communicates that file might not be correctly recoverable, some of the
files original data might have been already overwritten by operating
system or some other application. This means that it is almost
impossible to recover your file!
7. File recovery software probably now
asks where do you want to put the recovered file. It is recommended to
copy or put the recovered file either to another floppy or another hard
disk, but if no other chance, put it for example to the root of your
C:-drive (c:\).
8. If your inbox-file was correctly
recovered without any errors, it is time to locate the correct place
for the inbox-file, so that your email client can use it. If you have
started your email client before the recovery operation it has probably
created a new inbox-file that is empty. Find that file for example by
using Find-option (look again for the same info as mentioned at point
5.). If you cannot find it, consult documentation and technical support
provided with your email client.
9. When you have found the correct
place for you inbox, take a backup of current, empty or almost empty
inbox file your email client have possibly created. Then replace the
current inbox file with one you just recovered.
10. Now, it is time to start your email
client and see if you got your emails back. Good luck.
Please take backups regularly!
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