I have a user who is using Windows XP, MS Office 2000 with Outlook.  She has over 5,000 emails in about 50 different folders in Outlook.  I am setting up a new computer for her with Windows 2003.  She archived her email, setting the date to archive items older than 5/1/05.  

Here's the problem.  The archive was created...no error messages.  However, when I open the archive file inside of Outlook, I can only see messages dated from 5/1/05 through 12/31/05.  There should be messages going back several years into 2003, 2004, etc.  The emails are also no longer in Personal Folders.  The only email in the Personal Folders is email AFTER May, 2005. 

I am thinking that since the archive is so large, for some reason it isn't letting me see all the messages going back into 2003 and 2004.  Is there a setting that I need to adjust or some other way to see ALL the archived items?

Shouldn't I just be able to go into File, Open, Outlook Data File and open the archive.pst file and be able to see all the messages that are in the archive?

Any help or suggestions are appreciated.  Her email is very critical to her job and if they are gone, it's a disaster!  Also, any suggestions on a good, free or low-cost backup program for Outlook would help.

Thanks!

Pam

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