Outlook Express Inbox msgs missing

I have my POP3 account setup on OE6 running W2K. Inbox shows all messages ok. Then the next time I launched OE they were all gone with the exception of the “Welcome to EO6” message, which I had long ago deleted. I had not restarted, or relogged intothe workstation. I checked the view options, to ensure the messages were not hidden. This has happened on 3 seperate occasions. Appears as if the app is being reloaded.