Is this a virus?

R

roger2

I experienced a computer quirk today.

I have a W2K machine and Outlook express is my email program. Today every email in my Inbox dated prior to 7/31 was deleted.

It gets quirkier...

I use two computers for trading, both the same, but they are not networked or connected in any way. I have two seperate internet connections.

The emails on my second machine disappeared in exactly the same way!!!

I use Mcafee Virus Scan and keep it updated - just Tuesday night I updated my DAT files. And I have kept the email and download scans running over the past few days.

Does anyone know if this was caused by a virus???

Has anyone else experienced a similar problem???
 
Roger,

It sounds like you have your own computers at home, so the only thing I can think of is what is called "AutoArchive" in Outlook.

Go to Tools/Options and select the "other" tab. AutoArchive is one of the settings. At least thats where it is in my Outlook 2000.

If you're on a corporate network, it is very likely that IS deletes email older than a certain number of days. I have seen it set as low as 60 days.

Those are the things I can think of. Hope it helps.




 
If you use an IMAP server instead of POP3 for email, it may be an IMAP server issue. Try checking with your ISP.
 
thanks for the replies...

I have two ISPs but both are POP3

yes, these are home computers and they are not connected to any network

My version of Outlook Express has no "Other" tab under Tools/Options. I looked in each tab that is there but no mention of auto archive. i looked in Outlook Experss help also, but no ref. to auto archive.

things i forgot to mention...though I lost all emails prior to 7/31, not only were emails still there which were received yesterday and today, but the default MS "Welcome to Outlook" email was also in both inboxes. I did not lose any emails which were in other folders. and the missing emails are not in the "deleted items" folder

I also ran a virus scan on one of them and nothing was found

a real mystery...

 
My Outlook Express is experiencing the same problem. I don't know if it's new virus, bug in Outlook Express, or some setting in Outlook Express. Last night, I opened Outlook Express, all my previous mail in my Inbox were gone. Only those that newly downloaded from my ISP are in the Inbox. I closed Outlook Express and opened it again. Same thing. Only newly downloaded mail were there. I also received the Outlook Express welcome message.

This morning I opened Outlook Express again. All previous mail were gone, including yesterday downloaded mail. Only new mail downloaded from my ISP this morning were in my Inbox. Again. I received another Welcome message. Just a note that I deleted yesterday welcome message last night.

However, those mail stored in other folders I created in Outlook Express are still there. Looks like only the mail in Inbox are affected.

I also have virus scanner running all the time and my DAT file is updated weekly automatically. I just scanned all my local drives 2 days ago. No infection reported.

My Outlook Express problem is exactly the same as Roger2's. If anyone, know any solution or the cause of this, please help.
 
I'd try Microsoft's website. They usually stay on top of some of this bizarre stuff. The only way the "Welcome" message should appear is if it's your first time using the program. This is controlled by a registry setting. It's possible that something is conflicting with that setting and resetting it but the whole thing sounds strange. If you are familiar with registry settings (regedit, etc...), you may want to check that. Let us know if you find the answer.
 
Z

so it wasn't just me!!!

i have found neither cause nor solution...

i called one of my ISP's and asked if they still have my emails somewhere in back-up but they did not (only had a few days worth)

maybe your emails are still at your ISP, i don't know...


 
Well my experience was somewhat worse. I had my entire operating system wiped out instantly yesterday morning by Sircam 32. I was running McAfee and updating daily. It failed to catch it. Could it be a McAfee specific problem??
 
white,

is Sircam 32 a virus?

if so, that does not reflect well on Mcafee...

how did you determine the cause of your problem if McAfee didn't catch it and your OS was wiped out?

did you have to do a clean re-install of your OS?

regarding my experience with McAfee's VirusScan, i just do what it tells me to do ... except that i don't run the automatic system scan (in the background) while i am working, but i do keep the download/email scan running, and i do run complete manual scans periodically... it has never identified a virus for me...maybe i've never had one?

i don't know whether my email problem was virus related, i may never know unless further problems force me to investigate further

it would be interesting to know about other's experiences, good or bad, with McAfee VirusScan
 
had to reinstall the OS and all software. The virus hit my small rural alaska community. Norton users managed to escape but not the McAfee users. I needed Dell tech support to get going again. ISP's servers are still screwed up. Dell said it would have worse had I been running W95/98. I'm running NT which, according to Dell, cleans itself when you reinstall OS.
 
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