Data Recovery for Dummies

So I was debating whether or not I should post this here on the numerikblog because it's not really music or numeriklab related but...what the hell. I hope it's something no one will ever have to deal with it but it happened to me over the weekend and I was in a complete panic. I deleted my inbox and all 3,000 or so e-mails in it! It didn't just go to the trash either where I could recover it, I completely deleted everything. I dont know about you guys but I use my e-mail inbox to find old attachments, links, e-mail addresses, etc... All of my precious e-mails...gone. You know, super important e-mails like this one from Bradley Magruder:

From:   Bradley Magruder

Subject:  I SING AND RAP 

Date: April 12, 2006 1:42:54 PM PDT

To:   info@numeriklab.com

Body:       SO WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR ME?

I CANT DO ANYTHING FOR YOU BRADLEY BECAUSE I JUST DELETED MY INBOX! It was an innocent mistake really. I set up my e-mail address to use a new server and I just assumed that I could delete the old account with the old server settings without wiping out all of my old messages. Big mistake. As soon as I switched back to my inbox it was completely empty. My new server settings worked on the first try though, so that was a plus. Here is the good news, I was able to recover everything and here's how I did it step by step.

Step 1: Freak the fuck out!

Step 2: Google like crazy and eventually figure out you're going to need a data recovery program. Also figure out that the more you use your computer the more likely it will be that your e-mails will be overwritten and completely destroyed forever. Lame.

Step 3: Download Boomerang Data Recovery. This is a great little app. It's shareware so you can try it out for free. They let you see all of your missing files but if you want to save them you have to pay. So basically they held my emails hostage and I had to pay a ransom. It costs me $99 for 2.5GB of data. I thought that was pretty clever of them.

Step 4: Realize that all of your emails are in .emlx format and they wont import back into Apple Mail unless they are in mbox format. So... download emlx to mbox converter. This was totally painless and free. I love their site too, very basic.

Step 5: Open Apple Mail and import your newly converted emails back to their rightful place in your inbox.

Step 6: Sigh O' Relief

So that's it. Now I just need to go through and re-delete all of my spam.