Are there circumstances where a deleted e-mail message cannot be recovered?
Yes, under some circumstances deleted e-mails cannot be recovered. Deleted items can be retrieved for 10 days if they’re ever captured on a backup. As described above, there are certain situations where a deleted e-mail message doesn’t get captured on a backup, and thus can never be retrieved. The best example is the one given above where an e-mail message is received, gets deleted on the same day it’s received, and then the user’s “deleted items” folder is emptied later that same day. Because the deleted e-mail message is not found in any folder when the nightly backup is taken, it cannot possibly be captured on the backup. In this case, the message is gone forever (as far as the recipient is concerned). The sender’s copy of the e-mail is another case, and must be considered separately. Once the message is sent, a copy is retained in the sender’s “sent items” folder until it is removed. If a user sends a message, then deletes the message from the “sent items” folder, and subsequently
