Did you go to/ look in that location i gave you i Documents & Settings? Were there any outlook files/folders there?

Does a Find for .pst, turn up anything?

Those may very well be OExpress messages you're looking at-- in any case, you should be able to find out right away, as you can read both formats in OExpress-- just fire it up, click File, Import, Messages, Outlook....

ok problem solved..thanks for your help guys...actually I should have just listend to ripken04. simply reinstalling MS office and all the emails were back in the inbox...thanks a million...

They were always on your computer-- OExpress could've read them. If it gives you peace of mind you can always export/back them up to another location...