I am trying to retreive some old e-mails, both sent and received. I never deleted the e-mails, but after 27 days they drop off my system. The e-mails are on an AOL acct. AOL tells me that they are gone forever and unable to be retreived. They must be on the hardrive right? How can I pull them up and print them???

Unless you saved them somewhere, they're gone.

I thought that nothing is gone forever on a computer.

Depends on how you have your AOL setup. There is a configurable setting to save emails to "Your Computer." If you don't have it setup in this fashion, they are gone.

How would I check that setting? Thanks

Its in your Mail Settings.

Easiest way to see what you may/may not have is:

Sign into AOL.
Open your Mailbox Application
There are several tabs across the top:
NEW / OLD / SENT / MANAGE MAIL / SEARCH MAIL

Go to the MANAGE MAIL tab.
There should be a folder for SAVED ON MY PC.
Inside of that, there are 3 folders: Incoming/Saved...Mail Waiting To Be Sent...Mail You've Sent

If its not in one of those folders, its gone.


To fix the setting for future so it does save everything.
Go into AOL. Type MAIL SETTINGS into the search bar at the top center. This will pop up a results page. Click on the first listing, and this will pop up your Mail Settings for AOL. You can tweak what you need in there. Good luck.