# I erased an email 2 years ago in an email account I no longer have- way to retrieve? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 8, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-erased-an-email-2-years-ago-in-an-email-account-i-no-longer-have-way-to-retrieve/330008 "2005-11-08T03:42:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-erased-an-email-2-years-ago-in-an-email-account-i-no-longer-have-way-to-retrieve/330008/1 "2005-11-08T03:42:59Z")
Not only that, but since then my computer has been whatevered (he had to clean the hard drive or whatever b/c of a virus, so he saved all my files- all of them, I think?- and then did it). If he saved _all_ my files, is there a way to retrieve the compressed email data off my computer? ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-erased-an-email-2-years-ago-in-an-email-account-i-no-longer-have-way-to-retrieve/330008/2 "2005-11-08T03:46:18Z")
😃 vvvv Sdmb- SanDiskMegaBites, I think. Seems like Googleads is trying to trick us by sending us products with the same acronym. ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-erased-an-email-2-years-ago-in-an-email-account-i-no-longer-have-way-to-retrieve/330008/3 "2005-11-08T03:48:57Z")
SanDisk MB SanDisk MB SanDisk MB SanDisk MB ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-erased-an-email-2-years-ago-in-an-email-account-i-no-longer-have-way-to-retrieve/330008/4 "2005-11-08T03:50:09Z")
Darn it, I was trying to make Google bring the ad back up; it was an add saying ‘Sdmb’, and it turns out it’s SanDisk products for MBs on your computer. ---
**Author:** ![Basandre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@Basandre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Basandre)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-erased-an-email-2-years-ago-in-an-email-account-i-no-longer-have-way-to-retrieve/330008/5 "2005-11-08T04:15:04Z")
Well, you can _try_ checking with the provider of the account. They _might_ not have deleted it. (After 2 years, this seems quite unlikely; if nothing else they’d probably want to use the space for something else). If you checked the email account (when you had it) with a regular email client (Outlook, Eudora, Thuderbird, etc.) and the backup of your files from before the disk wipe was made in the form of a drive image, you can also try getting another hard drive of the same size, restoring the image, and getting a file recovery program like [this one](http://www.quetek.com/). The success of this one depends on how long passed between you deleting the email and the drive image being made. If it was more than about a week, maybe two, the likelihood of success drops greatly (the drive would have actually overwritten that spot with other data by then, unless your computer gets far less usage than most computers). If the backup isn’t a drive image, or if the email account was checked by way of a web browser or a telnet client, then there’s no way. Might I say once again, the likelihood of any of these working is somewhere between slim, and none, closer to none really. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-erased-an-email-2-years-ago-in-an-email-account-i-no-longer-have-way-to-retrieve/330008/6 "2005-11-08T05:22:09Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > Not only that, but since then my computer has been whatevered (he had to clean the hard drive or whatever b/c of a virus, so he saved all my files- all of them, I think?- and then did it). > > If he saved _all_ my files, is there a way to retrieve the compressed email data off my computer? What email program did you use? What type of email do you want to recover? Is it POP3 or IMAP? Do you have access to your backups? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-erased-an-email-2-years-ago-in-an-email-account-i-no-longer-have-way-to-retrieve/330008/7 "2005-11-08T05:50:00Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > Not only that, but since then my computer has been whatevered (he had to clean the hard drive or whatever b/c of a virus, so he saved all my files- all of them, I think?- and then did it). > > If he saved _all_ my files, is there a way to retrieve the compressed email data off my computer? Saved them to what? A CD, a hard disk, tape drive? ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-erased-an-email-2-years-ago-in-an-email-account-i-no-longer-have-way-to-retrieve/330008/8 "2005-11-08T05:54:32Z")
It was the school email account at my college. I was probably using Internet Explorer back then? I don’t know. > [@](#): > > if the email account was checked by way of a web browser or a telnet client, then there’s no way. There probably isn’t. 😛 As for my backups? Well, he copied my files and then did it and then put them back on my PC, in my C drive. Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal. 😃 I can contact the school and see if they have it still- > [@](#): > > Well, you can try checking with the provider of the account. They might not have deleted it. (After 2 years, this seems quite unlikely; if nothing else they’d probably want to use the space for something else). Probably.