deleted messages

L

lpeterson

i realize that when i permanently delete a message, that it does not really
delete (to someone who knows where to look). can anyone point me to where
these messages go and how i can REALLY delete them? without being too
technical hopefully.
 
B

Brian Tillman

lpeterson said:
i realize that when i permanently delete a message, that it does not
really delete (to someone who knows where to look). can anyone point
me to where these messages go and how i can REALLY delete them?
without being too technical hopefully.
Click to expand...

If you permanently delete the message, then compact the PST, it IS gone.

When you permanently delete something, the data structures that allow
Outlook to address the data get reinitialized, but, as you say, the data is
exactly where it was in the data store prior to the delete, but there's no
way to find it any more in the metadata. It's part of the "free space" list
that is maintained within the PST. There are ways by which you may be able
to find it again (such as a binary editor), but it would be difficult for
most to do so. Here's an example if how one might be able to recover the
data:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/restoredeleteditemsfromanoutlookpst.htm
 
L

lpeterson

thank you! how do i compact the PST?

Brian Tillman said:
If you permanently delete the message, then compact the PST, it IS gone.

When you permanently delete something, the data structures that allow
Outlook to address the data get reinitialized, but, as you say, the data is
exactly where it was in the data store prior to the delete, but there's no
way to find it any more in the metadata. It's part of the "free space" list
that is maintained within the PST. There are ways by which you may be able
to find it again (such as a binary editor), but it would be difficult for
most to do so. Here's an example if how one might be able to recover the
data:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/restoredeleteditemsfromanoutlookpst.htm
Click to expand...
 
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