PC help: Lost webmail

Back up your online email accounts

Q All of my emails have disappeared from my Hotmail account. There were 1,006, using about a fifth of the inbox capacity. The emails I marked as junk are still there but the inbox is empty.

I changed my MSN password for security and the confirmation email appeared in my inbox. I have no backups as I trusted the Hotmail servers to store them. The hotmail account is used at least three times a day. There were many sentimental emails and vouchers for online stores.
David McCann

A This is a risk when using webmail accounts: you trust the operator to provide a secure service. This is not to say they can’t be trusted, but just because the emails are not on your PC does not mean there is no need to back them up.

You can save individual emails from a Hotmail account but only as web pages. Click on the email in the inbox and when it has loaded, click on the File menu and select Save As. Find a folder to save the email to and give it a meaningful name so you can find it later. The email will be saved as a web page.

A more convenient alternative is to use email software such as Outlook Express or Mozilla Thunderbird to download the emails so they can be backed up to a CD. This is not possible with the basic Hotmail service, you will need to sign up to the Hotmail Plus service at a cost of £15 a year.

Other webmail accounts allow you to use email programs without paying. Try Googlemail and Yahoo mail.

Once the account is set up you can forward emails from the hotmail account. They must be forwarded individually.