Patent ID: 8533271

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of recovering an electronic mail message in a computer system, said method comprising: accessing, by a computer system, a user generated query identifying a portion of said electronic mail message; searching, by said computer system, a first table of stored header information to identify one or more electronic mail message candidates that match said query, the first table being stored in a computer-readable medium in communication with said processor and providing a first mapping that associates message identifiers of a plurality of deleted electronic mail messages with a plurality of recovery logs; in response to a user selecting a first electronic mail message of said message candidates, obtaining, by said computer system, a message identifier identifying said first electronic mail message; identifying, by said computer system, a selected recovery log from said plurality of recovery logs using said first mapping, said first mapping stored in said first table as an association between said message identifier and said selected recovery log; and identifying, by said computer system, a message information record from a plurality of message information records stored in said selected recovery log using a second mapping, said second mapping stored in said selected recovery log as an association between said message identifier and said message information record, wherein distinct subsets of the plurality of deleted electronic mail messages are stored in distinct recovery logs according to the first mapping; and recovering, by said computer system, said portion of said first electronic mail message from said message information record.