How to recover or to purge deleted items in Outlook 2000 Corporate Workgroup

This article describes how to recover deleted items in Microsoft Outlook 2000 and how to force a purge of your deleted items from your Mailbox Store.

Outlook provides the ability to recover previously deleted items. This feature is only available if your e-mail delivery point is set to your mailbox on the Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.5. Deleted items are stored on the server until they are purged by the user, the system administrator, or by a limit set by the system administrator. This feature is not available with Outlook configured with the Internet Mail Only (IMO) setup option.

To Recover Deleted Items

To recover deleted items, follow these steps:

1. On the Folder list, click to select the Deleted Items folder.
2. On the Tools menu, click Recover Deleted Items.
3. Click the item you wish to recover. If you want to recover multiple items, hold the Shift key down and click to select contiguous items or hold the CTRL key down and click to select noncontiguous items. If you want to recover the entire list, click Select All.
4. Click the Recover Selected Items button. The items will be returned to your Deleted Items folder, and then you can move them to other folders. If the menu item is not visible, hover the mouse pointer over the chevrons at the bottom of the menu, and then click Recover Selected Items.

To Purge Deleted Items

1. On the Folder list, click to select the Deleted Items folder.
2. On the Tools menu, click Recover Deleted Items.
3. In the Recover Deleted Items window, click the item you wish to purge. If you want to purge multiple items, press and hold SHIFT and click to select contiguous items or press and hold CTRL and click to select noncontiguous items. If you want to purge the entire list, click Select All.
4. Click the Purge Selected Items button, and then close the Recover Deleted Items window. If the menu item is not visible, move the mouse pointer over the chevrons at the end of the menu, and then click Recover Selected Items.

The items are now permanently removed from the server and will not be recoverable.