Lost files

Lost a wheel here boss

Mother Superior is heading off  to frolic in the Florida Sun on Monday.  She does this every year because she knows it's when I get everything done around the house that she's been bugging me about.  But, there was a problem.  I purchased the ticket online in October.  The confirmation #, ticket printing link, etc., were sent to her e-mail address.  Yesterday she went to check the schedule, and print her ticket when of a sudden ALL of her In Box e-mail disappeared.  Wham!  I will leave out all the gory stuff, but this is what happened, it seems. We both use Avast! anti-virus software, and like it a lot.  It's free, but you have to get a new registration code once a year.  When I looked at her computer her Avast! was expired.  A warning message was popping up while she was scanning her e-mail, but something was putting such a drag on her system that she hit the "Stop" button.  That's when it happened, so I must conclude a relationship. My first Google hit was this I just lost my e-mail Avast Anti virus just wiped my whole In box file, because it detected a virus inside one of the mail messages. Just like that, I lost about four years of e-mail conversations. I have a backup CD that I made about a year ago, but the last year of messages is definitely lost. :( Note to self: Never click on "Yes to All" if you don't know what you're doing. Update: I managed to recover most of the mail messages using a File Recovery software. It could only recover parts of the files, which leads to Thunderbird getting confused when trying to rebuild the summary file. Apparently, I can't copy, move or even delete messages from the recovered inbox, but I can at least read my old mail again.  Hours later I was able to retrieve that e-mail.  Her 7-year old computer is so slow I eventually copied her Files & Settings directory to a flash drive and did it on my computer.  What a pain in the ass.  I used to feel a sense of satisfaction with these little victories, but now I'm just weary of them.  Warning:  The first person who mentions  Mac - I'll hunt you down like a dog and spank your fanny red.