15 years of hotmail have disappeared.

continuing....   It's now April of 2015.   the waves of heartbreak and shock are receding....  life's  distractions  by its nature obviously is helping. 

 I love  that some  who try to help ask if this loss   ----  this little matter of missing folders  ---- comes from  "disuse",  or some degree of neglect,  you know .... not checking in frequently enough ...  and that would explain why it all had to be  excised. 

 Back in the 90s my computer died and I did not  have any way(s) to access  my Hotmail.com  account.  When  months,  maybe even a year later,  I found myself wondering about that old  Hotmail account .  I assumed it could not have survived  so  long being untended.  But  I looked  in  and it was so jammed  I  had to call someone in Microsoft.  Found an 800 number which answered in full human form (no robo voice)   and she  took  me through  the  backed up,  gridlocked  mess and we fixed it...   DISUSE DOESN'T RESULT IN TOTAL ERASURE.

"Disuse".... quite the opposite.  Twice a week or more I was in my  Hotmail  "room"  puttering and rifling through stuff....   from  renaming folders to culling the chaff.  No.  Microsoft must see this as a teaching moment and is/was  out to show me I didn't respect the gift it is.    This brute force clampdown is by design.  

A "raspberry" button, app, icon  is so  needed  as  underscore for the injured party's use to show the pain in these experiences :   from the  original act itself   right  up  to now with the NON helps.  The offers especially  by ones who see my distress and vulnerability as a marketing opportunity....   raspberries  raspberries  and more raspberries 

Hi Elizabeth,

A. Unless you have a back up made of the important email data it will be unlikely that you will be able to retrieve anything.

Backing up your important Outlook.com email data

B. The only legitimate support for the free web based email service Outlook.com is via

1. Forums (Microsoft Community)

2. You might care to chat with a Microsoft Account support specialist via this link.

3. By contacting customer support.

Thank you.

Oh I have contacted those at the Community.  My supremely vulnerable state is noted...you can tell by  the tech in his/her offer for a fee to alleviate my sadness.  I can have some sort of massive job done for a lot of money and then... then?    But as you told me nothing can come of this taking of my money.  I have never backed up the old *** Email address is removed for privacy ***.  nope.  never. 

Never have I backed up  wattage usage on my electric bill;  nor the minutes and descriptions of the calls used and received on my good old landline; I don't back up the uses of water; the numbers of showers or baths and the amounts of waters needed there; 

Don't record and store for some arcane use the content of phone conversations I have on old Faithful:

My Landline; I don't back up the times nor frequency of television watching nor the content;  Don't have cable as I am on a small monthly and limiting retirement income ---  so I can't record my cable usage for it's non-existent  (who can afford those smart phones, cable, ipads, kindles, large-screen televisions? How can you afford this stuff?)

I use the old  backing up method:  I have boxes and boxes and filing systems for hard copies of the sentimental cards and letters from living normal life "back when".  I am swamped with paper.  But not old phone and electric bills...  no reason nor call nor warnings from anyone to BACK UP THIS STUFF.

How was I to know without you Microsoft People sending some HARK:  GO OUT AND BUY A DISC AND BE SURE TO PREPARE FOR A SUDDEN LOSS OF ALL THIS STUFF ---  LEARN HOW TO COPY ALL THE CONTENT IN ALL THESE FOLDERS ONTO  A  DISC!!!!    letter, you know,  maybe a memo, would have been a act of simple, sacred kindness

BUT  because of this slipup, this oversight,  this non-action  you failed to   INFORM ME OF THIS  DOOMSDAY IN THE OFFING.

HOW     WA S     I      TO    KNOW?    

Elizabeth,

1. Caveat emptor applies...
Microsoft does not keep back ups of many millions of unique users emails.
That is the responsibility of each  & every person who uses the free, web based email service that Microsoft provides.

2. If your electronic email data is important it is prudent to back it up, especially if it is in the cloud and not under your control.

When you signed up for the email account there was (in the fine print) the Terms of use which clearly said that the user is responsible for the data and not Microsoft.

3. The only legitimate support for the free web based email service Outlook.com is via

* Forums (Microsoft Community)

* You might care to chat with a Microsoft Account support specialist via this link.

* By contacting customer support.

Thank you.

   Obviously I am at fault here. But since there is no  RASPERRY emoji I have to quietly go away without that soul-satisfying salute to you'all and all your fancy shoulder shrugging insinuating to me; "Tough Toenails".   

Thanks for your response Elizabeth.

I can assure you I would much prefer to be able to assist you in a more positive way.
FYI.. Most of us "working" here  are users / volunteers trying to help fellow users in our spare time.

Good luck!

Hi Elizabeth -- I know how you feel-- the same thing happened to me on windows live-- I had a special folder where i had my most important emails of ten years in a seperate account and separate folder-- anyway one day they'd just disappeared-- then for some reason they turned up in my operating system as numbers--along with my separate account--i tried to get my account back by writing to windows live -- but they wanted the password that i couldn't remember-- anyway i gave up after 20 emails-- then my computer crashed and my mate who was supposed to reload it and keep windows for me, didn't, and i lost what was in windows-- anyway i began this incredibly long process of trying to get that original account back-- another 20 or more emails later -- i got it back-- and guess what-- my special folder -- called "to keep"-- wasnt with it--in it, in that process of trying to get my account back i had to make two new accounts-- now Ive got three accounts and whenever i get an email it comes to the three accounts-- drives me crazy-- if i could take all my emails and put them somewhere i didn't have to sign into windows to read and keep them i would, then id get rid of the two i had to get in the process of trying to get that special folder back in that separate account-- and whilst im here if anyone can help me with that id very much appreciate it-- thanks John

Thank You!!

John!! ---

I feel, this morning, so nice at seeing your note showing my distress is known by you, you know how I feel.  Yet I feel for you too.  A purely hellish experience.  Of all things --  your "to keep" folder was somehow gone.  I feel this anger just reading that.   And you've got these Three accounts  .... how do they manage to do this perfect bolloxing up ----  these geniuses who can manage to do correctly what they want to do well.  

I love that the answers here have been so pristinely purged of any scintilla of even a hint of sympathy.  Or recognition of the severe shock that went with what happened.  

I know what caveat emptor (a so-called response, above)   means, and in this context it comes across as flippant and pre- adolescent.  So he or she brandishes their small knowledge of a Latin phrase known to 5th graders.  Next time I would hope to read  Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa.  The prayer we prayed in grade school Parochial.  With the nuns.  Whatever, John, I'm so without forgiveness, yet.... I do ramble on...  Thanks, Elizabeth

Yes.  Thanks to you too.  many.

Elizabeth i could tell you other stories about the same thing--i know it all feels horrible - but get this -- i had one video of my kids when they were little--i lent it to my ex to share it -- and it got taped over-- then i lost all my emails and all my pictures from my first computer  i think it was outlook express or something like that--that was from 98 to 2003-- then i blew up another computer and lost more emails and pictures that was  from 2003 to 2007--so ive got nothing from 98 to 2007-- then i blew up another computer in 2011 and when i got it back and my email account in there was only-- eight emails form 2007- --10 from 2008-- 20 from 2009-- but none of those were to keep--or important emails -i also lost everything from 2010 not one important email-- i was in a war for 7 years 2003 to 2010--and i kept all my emails that i wrote to the dept-- all gone except for four or five-- after they all disappeared in 2011  i only had a few from 2010-to 2011 and since then the rest are there-- i also lost a lot of pictures in that time as well-= i got another computer and rounded up all the pictures from everywhere i could- some old hard drives-- family firends, etc-- and then i brought another computer in 2014 and put  the pc i had, outside with all my stuff on it, whilst i got into my new computer-- the next day i was going to take everything from there and put it onto my new computer-- i felt almost like i was sort of at least starting somewhere agin and id get what id salvaged and at least have a new start-- that night i was robbed and in the morning my old computer was gone--3 hard drives in it gone--pictures of my mum dad as kids teenagers friends weddings--30s- 50s my pop nanna their wedding when they were kids--way back to the roaring twenties-1910 to 1920-my family --brothers sisters when we were kids --50s 60s,---- my kids--80 -2000s-- and videos and more pics of my kids in the decade 2000 to 2010---so yeah i kinda know how you feel Elizabeth--- and thats why i must get everything out of my email accounts and put them on a hard drive that i can access without having to go into windows live or outlook to see them or access them-- im paranoid and so worried about losing anything again-- another reason i almost went mad trying to get my accounts back only to get them back and everything "to keep" gone. and even though i kind of blame them for making it take so long to get them back, the stupid unrealistic questions that id answered very adequately, at the end of the day im just putting it down to some kind of karma-- everything for a reason, i cant think anything was done on purpose or id end up paranoid and wildly angry-- and thats never going to bring them back-- people are just people, they dont mean to do things like that, i have to have faith in them and their fallibilities, as i would want them to have faith in me and mine-- youve heard the saying s%%$#t happens-- im just going to have to go with that-- ive still got some pictures-- and a few emails -- just not the early ones which are the major ones-- but its all in my heart and i'm sure some of them will turn up one day-- maybe when i get them all out and into folders and sort them out-- what Ive got left anyway-- and somewhere there are still number emails -- so i'm somewhat hopeful--you be too Elizabeth dont give up hope-- dont forget to ask family and friends for your emails youve sent-- get them to send you some-- make a new account-- your email will be on their emails -- maybe some data codes --where theirs hope theirs life--don't despair--be hopeful-be alive-be good--stay good, John