Question about Outlook Express

I opened Windows Live mail and received email as usual, no problems.

Then I logged out and a prompt came up saying something to the effect that "live mail would compact space" to make room for more emails - this has happened several times before with no problems.

After a few minutes, I went back on to Live Mail and discovered that all of my inbox folders were gone, the "sent items" was empty, basically all records of previous email transactions were gone as if I had reset the program, which I did not.

I then started to re-received over 600 emails that dated back about 3 weeks.

I checked all the current updates, and there were none that had to do with Windows Live Mail.

I called my internet server (which is POP) to see if the settings needed to be reconfigured and they were all intact - I am able to send and receive emails.

I have been on Windows Live Mail for more than a year and have had these re-sent emails happen a few times, but the folders stayed intact.

Can the folders be retrieved? Are they lost or perhaps could they be hidden somewhere?

It seems that everytime something like this happens, I have to call the technical support at Microsoft and instead of helping me they always try to get me to purchase the Outlook Explorer, something that used to be included in the Windows 7 and Vista programs.