.pst file disappeared on compaq back up and restore

Question

Hi,
Tech support at Compaq had me do a full back up and resore using the compaq tools found with the F11 key at startup.  After my restore was complete, I reloaded microsoft office and specifically microsoft outlook, but I cannot located my .pst file to get back all of my emails from the last 3 years.  The correct file path should be
 C:/users/name of user/appdata/local/microsoft/outlook...but nothing there except a small archive .pst file.   I was told by tech support that I was backing up EVERYTHING (all boxes were checked), but this file is no where to be found.  I have searched everywhere, I have even hooked up my external drive to another computer and searched it.  I also restored the data to another computer and searched again for the .pst file and nothing.  There are older .pst files there and the small archive file, but my main file is completely missing.  Could it have been corrupted in some way and therefore was not backed up?  If this was the case, would I not have seen an error message?  Short of taking my computer to a data recovery lab (which may not even be successful since the computer was restored), can anyone think of any way to recover my .pst file?  I've done all kinds of system searches for it and nothing shows up.   I'm desperate!!!

Answer 1

Hi,
I do understand your point...
Even though is seems there is not much I can do for you, I may have a suggestion for you.
Before you go and spend $950 for data recovery, there is something you might want to try.
There are plenty of recovery tools you can try to recover your .pst file but you have to be careful and don't write any more files on your disk until you get the one(s) you want!
What I would do is to put this disk as one external one then try recovery tools on an other computer.
Doing it this way will prevent windows (and other apps) from writing files onto the disk.
Basically, a file is (very quickly) made of two different things:
- your data
- a "fence" around it to allow the system to use it and prevent it from writing new info over it.
When you erase (or quick format a disk), you only remove the fence around your file telling the system it can write new info at the very same place.
Unless new data is written, recovery tools will read the entire disk for patterns and try to save them in a different place writing at the say time a "new fence" around them.
That is the chance you have to recover your files.
One tool that did a good job for me is http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/
Another point, you can move your pst file(s) in a more convenient location if you want to and make sure it won't be stored in an invisible folder. As an example, you can create an Outlook folder within the my documents folder on the desktop and store your pst file there.
Hope it can help you.
Cheers,
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