Email disappeared from sent box

[Ronnie-Bird]

I recently changed to Outlook 2003, because I wanted to have the ability to
perform email merges. I'm running it on XP Pro. When Outlook was installed,
it apparently installs with Auto Archive on, but I didn't know that. so, last
week I lost a lot of sent emails, but it wasn't tragic. I subsequently found
and turned off Auto Archive.

Today, I wanted to sort my emails from the past week, including the sent
emails, into my folders. To my dismay, much of the sent email is missing,
again. Only the last couple of days worth is in the folder. I tried adjusting
the View options, but they just aren't in the sent folder. Auto Archive is
still off, and a search for the archived files netted zilch. I enabled view
hidden folders and files, but still nothing. The missing emails were not
accidentally or otherwise deleted, but they are no where to be found.

What's going on, and is there a way to retrieve any of the lost items?

Ron