Thanks for emails, nothing has yet helped. I emailed a guy I know who works with computers - he said this: Search your whole computer for files ending in the extension .DBX Outlook express has a default store folder and if that somehow got moved, that would have the same effect. So if you look for any DBX files, and then find the OE store folder and find that there are DBX files in there which are clearly the ones containing your messages, e..g. they will have any custom folder names that you've made, the important thing to do immediately, is to make a copy of all those DBX files, in fact copy everything that is in the folder they are in, to a known safe location. Having done that you will be able to re-import them into O E by choosing File menu, import messages, from a store folder. He says search the whole computer for this folder, how do I do that please? Mandy.