Deleted email folders when deleting account setting

[Kris]

How can I recover hundreds of folders that vanished today when I took
off a no-longer active account? The folders were no longer on the
server from the old account; they were on the hard drive, or so I
thought. They certainly no longer appeared on the old account server.

I'm using 2000 and Outlook express 6.

Can't see anything in the recycle bin except the very first one
alphabetically.

Thanks,
Kris