Microsoft outlook - all messages in inbox disappear!!!?

Question

My mom has MSOutlook and about three times a year, all of sudden when she goes to open it up, she finds that all of her messages in her inbox are gone - just gone. She didn't manually delete them. She had about 1000. Can anyone tell how that might be happening and also is there anyway to get them back or to stop this process from happening again. We are stumped. Thanks.

Oh, I have Windows XP. Please, someone must have the answer to this. Thanks!

Sorry, I keep forgetting. This is for my mom. She has Microsoft 98. Not sure if that makes a difference or not.

Answer 1

If it is three times a year it sounds like she has autoarchive configured.

From File -> Archive and check there. Generally archives are archive* name, so search for that on your computer. What you need to do is add the archive file to your current Outlook view.
From File -> Open (I forget exact link, I don't have outlook here at home) and open the archive data file. Another tab will appear in your left pane under your current main Mailbox.

Answer 2

First of all...WHY 1000+ messages??? (not deleted?)
1. You may have filled your quota (Megabyte wise) that Microsoft allows or they have become staledated.
2. GET ORGANIZED, there is no good reason why you would have all messages in one place.
3. Read your mail, then any you want saved put in a folder where they belong i.e. Lose weight messages don't belong in a gain weight folder ;-)
4. You will find your e-mail experiences a joy if you take some time to do it right, and you'll not lose them as easily.
Good luck.

Answer 3

I don't know what version of of outlook she is using so follow this link, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287577 hope it helps Also she may want to clean up a bit around 1000 messages is alot :)