Outlook Express email missing after crash

[JayR]

This morning I checked email and then closed OE6. It prompted me to compact and so I did, as I have done many times before.
When I got home at the end of the day, I found that my computer had experienced a 'crash'. Apparently, it was around the time of the compacting as now I am missing most of my email messages, some useless and of course some quite important to me.
I went into the files and it appeared that the messages were still there, just not in the OE window. So I figured I would open up Outlook and import all messages. I did this but the messages which were missing, remained missing. When I went back into the files, it now appeared as though the folders were empty as well.
So, the obvious question is.......can I get these messages back???
Thanks very much for any help.
Jay

 

[RuralGuy]

Have you tried:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033\SCANPST.EXE

 

[JayR]

Is this just for Outlook files or will it also work with OE files (dbx)?
The way I understand it, because the compacting was interrupted, the computer will delete/purge files. That said, I do not find anything in my recycle bin so I am left wondering what I can do here. I see that there are many 'recovery' programs out there but I wonder if they would even work in this situation. I have a hard time believing that these files are gone forever right now, but who am I to say.
I even tried a system restore in the off chance, but as I expected, it didn't make a difference.

 

[RuralGuy]

Oh that's right, this is for PST files. Shoot, my bad. I don't have that much experience with OE.

 

[Mike375]

Maybe something here

http://email.about.com/od/outlookexpresstroubles/qt/et_compact_oe.htm

 

[JayR]

I searched my computer for dbx and bak files but found nothing related to my missing files. I used a porgram, Recuva.com, and it located many previously deleted files, including a number of my missing email folders. I 'recovered' them and put them back into the email file structure. I do not understand where the other folders went as they never came up in the search with the recovery program, yet files from years back were still recoverable, despite monthly defrags and other maintenance cleaning.
I have done nothing since I noticed I lost the files beyond a few recovery searches and the restore. It keeps prompting me to compact right now, but I haven't.