Microsoft Calls Reports of Missing Outlook Files 'Not Accurate'

By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews

March 16, 2007, 3:40 PM

In a new post-script to a message headed "OneCare's Dedication to Our Customers" originally posted yesterday on the Microsoft Windows Live OneCare Team blog, lead product manager Gina Narkunas declares the Outlook e-mail file deletion issue "fixed," but then attempts to explain that the .PST files containing the entirety of users' local e-mail stores weren't really deleted to begin with: "not that the files are deleted, just that they can't find them."

The message comes a day after a OneCare user accidentally discovered on his own that his .PST file, which he believed had been deleted when it was supposed to have been merely quarantined by OneCare, had actually been rendered "deleted" by Windows System Restore, which he had invoked earlier in trying to recover the .PST file. In attempting to address an unrelated bug, the user had rolled back his system restore, after which the .PST reappeared within OneCare's quarantine directory.

Narkunas makes reference to this single case in this excerpt from her post-script: "We have also seen some instances where customers attempted to do a system restore after their .pst or .dbx files were quarantined and then could no longer find the files in their quarantine list - not that the files are deleted, just that they can't find them."

If a customer believes his .PST file has been deleted by OneCare, Narkunas explains, that thought was probably put into the customer's head by the kind of stuff he probably read on the Internet someplace.

"Recent reports about this bug conveyed that OneCare actually deleted Outlook files," Narkunas wrote, "which is not accurate and has caused some confusion in the community. It is important to clarify that although in certain cases OneCare might automatically delete a piece of malware, OneCare does not delete archive files such as .pst or .dbx files, nor does the design of the service allow users to set OneCare to automatically delete such files when quarantined."

In other words, the most likely scenario in the case of apparent deletion is that the user probably did something to make the file seem like it was deleted: for instance, deleting the file himself, or attempting a System Restore to recover the file.

What Narkunas does not go on to explain is why, after users attempt a System Restore, the .PST file remains missing. The answer could perhaps imply that the file isn't really being backed up.

But based on the user's reports in the OneCare forum, it appeared he understood quite well where quarantined files were supposed to go, although the .PST file did not appear to be there at first. His System Restore attempt failed to recover the file, although rolling back the System Restore appeared to bring the .PST file back to visible status in the quarantine directory.

While this user's discovery may bring hope to many who have been unable for about two months to retrieve their lost .PST files, it isn't clear at present whether the scenarios of everyone whose .PST files remain lost are identical with his. However, based on some of their descriptions, it appears not all who lost .PST files attempted a System Restore. At least one other user tried rolling back a System Restore point, with no success.

One other user reports attempting a System Restore rollback, only to find more damage than was done before, including a mangling of his Documents and Settings folder, and an amalgam of several smaller files into one big file. However, this could be an isolated incident.

Yesterday, a recently hired Microsoft anti-virus engineer found himself grappling with the public relations issues regarding OneCare, though he avoided the issue of the deletion bug whose history may extend before he was brought on-board.

Narkunas' post states that Microsoft rolled out its engine update with the quarantine bug fix on March 11, a few days ahead of schedule. She suggests that users sit tight and let their OneCare engines update themselves to incorporate the fix, although some users report their services are not being updated automatically, even when set to do so.

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For decades, users of Windows and its predecessor, MS-DOS, have known that deleted files aren't really "wiped" - their directory entries are merely removed, and that it may be possible to re-instate the entries and recover the files. Undelete utilities for this purpose have been available for over a quarter-century.

Microsoft's contention today is that it was inaccurate for BetaNews and others to state that users' Outlook e-mail files were deleted, on the basis that at least for a handful, they were recovered through a process that appears to be a modern extrapolation of "undelete." However, if we take users at their word - and users are our readers, so we should trust them as we would want them to trust us - many of their Outlook files remain unrecoverable, either by themselves or with help from Microsoft customer support.

Thus it only makes sense to conclude that if a database file is missing, and genuine efforts by knowledgeable people are unsuccessful in recovering the file, then for all practical purposes, the file is deleted. Maybe it can be undeleted. For both the users' sake and Microsoft's, we hope it will.

But we genuinely believe you're smart enough to know when language is being touched up or terminology is being re-parsed in the interest of masking the true problem. You wouldn't vote for a political candidate who responds to inquiries by saying, "It depends on what you mean by 'improper;"' for much the same reasons, you're not going to read us if we start splitting hairs over what we should call a file when it's gone. The moment we start applying lexical varnish to depressing subjects and calling the happier, glossier version "accurate," is the moment we break our trust with you, and that we become as offensive to you as malware.

So no, we're not going to tell you, "This behavior is by design." We have so many more important things to do with the little time we have than to candy-coat reality. When this problem is solved, we'll be happy to report it. Until then, we stand by our story.