>>>>After 30 days of no usage, MS purges your emails to free up unused space. Its in the agreement you sign when you join.
>>>
>>>Thanks, I guess I didn't read this agreement carefully and thus have the consequences. Anyway, these e-mails were not very important, but it's a bit of a pity I lost them.
>>
>>It's something they seem to have implemented within the last year or two.
>
>they've been doing this since 2000 that I know about.

I didn't realize that. I probably just noticed it when I moved to Gmail and didn't check my Hotmail as often.