Products missing, cant find but they are there !

Not sure if its a bug, I think it may have been something I did and cant recover from it.

Basically I have a bunch of produts that have dropped of the radar now. I cant recreate these products as it tells me they product code already exists, but I cannot search for them from the admin filter as it doesnt find them. I am wondering if they belonged to a category that is now missing and they have no home, if so how do I get to them to give them the home they desire now ?

Thanks for any help.

FOund the little things

Basically I beleive I must have moved a category or deleted on at one point that they belonged to, I exported the whole product list. Found the products without a category, assigned them one, and magically I can now search and find them.

I would mention that maybe products without category should sit in the root else you cant serach or find them at all, but cant add products with their codes

Anyway case solved.