Lost e-mails

After syncing my windows phone with my computer I was prompted by Microsoft to enter a new e-mail address and password to sign up for a Microsoft account. I was horrified therefore when I went to sign into my hotmail account that everything had disappeared and I was unable to retrieve any e-mails or contacts that I had previously had.....I have turned off the conversation thread as suggested by someone else in the forum but that has not worked so am now hoping that someone else can help me.....with thanks