Recovering Outlook Express emails that disappeared

After purging some old emails I went to the inbox only to discover that all incoming messages between 2/6/15 and 4/2/15 had just disappeared. My sent message and deleted files were current it was only the inbox that had the gap. I want to be able to recover those files. My primary question is how do I identify the missing emails (all I have is the date interval) and then run recuva to get them back into Outlook Express? I have downloaded recuva in the past but don't have current update. Is it necessary to get update to do what I want to do? I'm not a tech kind of guy so if you could keep it straight forward as possible it would be appreciated.

Outlook Express keeps everything in C:\Documents and Settings\your user\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{your class ID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

Go there and see if you have any .bak files.

Each of your folders will have its own .dbx file.

OE creates these .bak files if you ever answer Yes to the "Do you want to compact your emails to save space?" maintenance message when exiting OE sometimes.

I've had success in the past with a program called Recovery Toolbox for Outlook Express.

I went through a period I needed to use it often enough that I ended up buying it but from memory I think it's free for either a few uses or to recover the first 50 email items or something - it's enough to determine if it'll do what it says anyway.

Another 'trick' I have used in the past is to delete the POP3UIDL.DBX and FOLDERS.DBX

OE will recreate these when started next and forces it to reindex the mail items.

You never know, you might get lucky. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP OF THE OE FOLDER (just in case).

Something else to try (if you have it) is to use Outlook and import all the emails in from OE, on the assumption those lost emails are still there, just not showing.

On the assumption the gap was caused by human error, have you checked the Deleted Items for that date range?

Recuva will only 'find' an old Inbox.dbx file in its entirety, it won't find those particular items in that gap date range.