Microsoft Outlook address recovery

[duffmon]

I have Microsoft Office XP and recently formatted my laptop, before starting the formatting I moved files from the laptop to the desktop (desktop has Office 97). I had a lot of addresses in my Outlook address book, which I wanted to save. Thinking all I had to do was go into C:\ Program files \ Microsoft Office and grab the whole Microsoft Office folder and move it to the desktop. I would have Outlook with the addresses and would be able to just drag the folder back to the program files, and I would have Outlook addresses and that would be that! Well, I guess you can figure out the rest. What I am wondering is can I restore the Outlook address book somehow from the folder I have on the desktop which I cannot open because the desktop has Office 97. The Office XP can be put on the desktop, it is licensed to the desktop also just wasn’t using it so I didn’t reinstall it. But that brings me back to where I am on the laptop after I reinstall Office XP I will lose the old files. I have a lot of work and personal addresses that will be lost if I can not find away to do this.

Can anyone help?
Hope this isn’t to hard to follow!

 

[MoiraT]

Not sure if I have completely got the problem but if I understand you correctly, the contacts are still in Outlook on the laptop? If so, then you can export them from Outlook (File, Import and Export, then export to a .csv file). This will keep a copy safe while you install XP on the desktop PC then you can import the contacts into Outlook on the desktop.
HTH

 

[duffmon]

MoiraT, No I reinstalled Windows XP on my laptop and wanted to save my Outlook addresses and thought all I had to do was to move the whole Microsoft Office XP folder to my desktop to store until I reinstalled Windows and Office back on the laptop and then reinstall the Microsoft Office Xp folder back to the laptop. But I found went I reinstalled Office that the old files I moved back were gone. I still had the old files on the desktop so I tried to move them again. but when I opened the address book it always opens the empty or newly installed address book. So I have the old files on my desktop but no way of openning them to get the old addresses.