Can "lost" emails be retrieved?

[humbersloop]

For business purposes, working in Outlook, I need to keep a lot of emails and their attachments. My email is well organised in relevant folders and, because of the volume, was regularly backed up and archived.

We've recently had a catastrophe with a new server installation, that took our entire system out for days. On recovery, it seems no back up or archiving had been done on my mailbox for about the last 18 months. As a result, all my contacts content has been lost and I've had to start again building my folder system. That's a pain, but can be done.

Is there any way I can get the "lost" emails back - our teccies are saying no, and that some sort of forensic data recovery would cost a fortune.

Sorry this is lengthy. Any suggestions or thoughts would be gratefully received, thanks.