The Emails were there but I was unable to open them until I came across this great programme that was able to restore Emails that I had deleted some 3 years ago after at least two OS upgrades.............
http://www.mailnavigator.com/ I didn't need them, just experimenting as I recently upgraded a friends system from 98SE to XP pro. Unfortunately it didn't save the OE folders (it normally does) which contained some three years of Emails that she had been saving.
I really need to get them back and I couldn't believe my luck that this thread was running on the day that I did the upgrade.
Regards
FBW