Inbox emptied out, but still there

I know this sounds strange but it seems that my Local Inbox emptied completely out and then when I went to Get Messages it put the new ones in the Local Inbox. The order in which this happened: 1) open NS then email, 2) Login Failed to NS Webmail inbox; checked OK, 3) Click on Home Account Inbox, Right screen was blank, 4) Composed email and logged out. Next time I brought up NS email the Home Account Inbox was empty, so I click Get Msgs (mistake), Inbox populated with new mail only. But the old emails are not there. I have looked for these messages and only found previous backups / folders. Any suggestions or they just lost. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

OS: WinXPSP2; Netscape 7.1

 

I am very confused by your description. What is "Local Inbox "? Each account has an Inbox, but "Local" is not familiar to me.
As for Netscape Webmail, i.e. @netscape.net has not existed since last August.
What is "Home" account? There is nothing wrong about clicking on Get Messages. In fact you can check a box in your server setting to "automatically download your messages ". If your password is saved that will happen.
Do you have any Inbox in Local Folders?
Your old emails will still be on the hard drive. something must have happened because of the set up of your account(s). As for the location of your mail folders, on the hard drive, check this .
Note that WinXP hides your folders.

 

Westside, Thanks for your reply, I have already gone through previous postings by yourself and Ramona, they were very helpful. Local Inbox just means the one on my PC vs the NS Webmail Inbox. I have located the old files and folders in the .slt in my profile using previous posts. The current inbox only contains emails from the time this happen to now. None of the previous emails are in the .slt, it's like it got wiped and started fresh. Hard to explain, have not seen this before in any post.

 

Royce,

When in Windows Explorer, are you looking at the IMAPMail folder for the older messages?

Did you elect to leave messages on the Server, or did you set up the WebMail Account in Mail & Newsgroups, to download messages on startup?

 

And, of course, there has been no Netscape Webmail since last August. I mean @netscape.net accounts. Your mail would be, still, accessible, if an @aim.com account, with the same username/password is created. Then, there is no need to place anything in Local Folders.