email issues for windows

[ttodd]

I am usually pretty computer savee for a number of decades now .. but have run into a situation where I am here to ask for help..
I do have windows 10 and I also have windows xp pro both on a Hardrive C: it is a dual boot hardrive . .when I boot up I have option of picking which O/S to choose .. I have windows XP for the simple reason of My wife ( login #2) Loves outlook express for her email and so do I .. Exchange is okay .. but Outlook express (6) is her favourite .. so to appease her I keep the dual boot option ..

Problem: when my Windows 10 with Creative version 1709 version 16299.125 ,,.. crashed on me last week I t froze and would not log into windows 10 it just display ed the BIG blue start symbol .. No matter what I did alt/control/delete/ safe mode it not log into windows .. BUT I had an ace up my sleeve ( so I thought )..

Option A - Last Sept 7th 2017 after deciding that my window 10 was running tip top I decided to use an option suggested to me in the settings / update and security / backup .. here there was an option to backup your windows to another Hard drive of which I used drive F.. I have three hard drives so lots of room in my PC ) did this and done at the time to Harddrive.

Problem 2-What I didn't consider was Windows backed up all of my Drive C and when I clicked on the folder ( under windows XP ( remember I can't log into windows 10 ) .. the restore not only backed up the C driveto windows 10 for the date of Sept 7th 2017 ..m, BUT also backed up tothe date all of windows XP..

My considerations- Now I know that system restore is a different animal over Backup .. but what backup did was turn my PC into a machine that was essentially turned off and not used for these past 4 months therefore all my documents and my emails are subject to this Date.. When we open outlook express the emails only are dated up to Sept 6th ...

All my updates are outdated ( not a problem) ., my .doc files which I have stored mostly on a cloud storage are not a problem., BUT the .dbx files I only back up maybe every 6 weeks .. so I am able to find one of the backups for .dbx dated late Oct 2017 ..

Question - Did the .dbx file getting over written? because I Can't find them anywhere .. Does any one know??

I'm kinda in the dog house over this .. My wife's emails are very important to her as her business depends on her contacts and email replys and responses to her clients ...

[jdc2000]

If you restored an image of a DRIVE, it would have restored all partitions on that drive. You did not say what backup method you used (software and settings selected), so we can't say for sure, but that is likely the explanation. If this is indeed what occurred, those e-mails are gone, unless you can persuade your e-mail provider to get a copy from their backups. I would not expect much success there, but you could try it.

If you have business e-mails, those should be backed up daily, to a separate folder with that date on a separate drive, so you have at least a weeks worth of backups and preferably a months or a quarters worth before deleting any of the backups to reclaim space. A monthly backup should be retained for each month for at least the last 3 to 5 years.