Moving Outlook Account files 3

[herrslime]

Running Office XP with Outlook 2002 on a Windows 98 computer. Registry got trashed so Windows will no longer start. Removed the hard drive and installed it into another Win98 computer and made a clean install of Office XP on the new machine.

I transfered all the files from D:\WINDOWS\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook on the old drive to C:\WINDOWS\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook on the new drive.

The contacts and mail are there but all the email accounts are not. I do not know the name or location of the file I need to move to the new drive for the email accounts.

I was not using Outlook Express so there are no IAF files.

Are there any other files associated with Outlook that I could move over to recover any other settings that had been changed in Outlook?

Thanks

 

[satrow]

You are looking for a *.pst file (Windows/Application Data/....?).

Andy.

 

[herrslime]

Yes. All PST files had been transferred to the new drive and placed in the same folders.

Which one contains the email account information?

Thanks

 

[satrow]

Using the import facility in Outlook, it may 'offer' the filetype or filename in the 'browse' or 'open' dialog?

Andy.

 

[satrow]

Is there a *.ins file (from your ISP) on the drive?
It can be opened in Notepad to check it is the correct one, then double-clicked to install the dial-up, news and email account settings.

Andy.

 

[herrslime]

RE: Import

Is there a way to import when I never exported?

RE: INS files

These files contain the basic information for setting up a new account. I already have the setup information from my ISP for POP3 etc.
--
I am missing all the previously setup email accounts AND all the rules I had setup for handling email. That is what I am trying to recover or at least view so I can set them up manually again.

Thanks

 

[satrow]

It shouldn't matter that you have never exported, the import should work from store files, .dat, .idx, .pst etc., as well as exported files, .txt, .csv etc..

Have you checked for user data stored under /Windows/Profiles?

Andy.

 

[herrslime]

I had previously imported data from all PST files located in all areas on the old drive into Outlook and confirmed that they were complete and located in the same place on the new drive.

I scanned the entire old drive for files with extensions: .dat, .idx, .txt, csv, .pst. No new files were located during this new scan.

No email accounts or rules showed up in Outlook after doing all this.

I still don't know the name of the file that stores email accounts and rules. Or how to view them.

Thanks

 

[satrow]

Ok, I'm now on a PC with Outlook (2000).
Rules can be imported only from Outlook Express.
The following are all extensions for Office Data files;-
.fad .nick .ost. pab .pcb .pst .rw7 .web
You could try searching for those.
Did you look to see if there was anything under /Windows/Profiles?

Andy.

 

[herrslime]

I very much appreciate your help but I am not sure what looking for all these files will get me. As I mentioned before I search for all the file extensions in all the folders on the old drive. Since I did all folders that would include the ones you have asked about.

Without knowing the exact file name and extension, I am not sure what finding all these files will accomplish. If you can tell me exactly what I am looking for it would help.

Thanks again.

 

[equazcion]

I've been looking everywhere for days to find out how to do exactly what you describe - move Outlook accounts from one computer to another, or to simply back up email accounts. Versions of Outlook preceding 2002 had a feature built in for this, but beginning with 2002 there is no feature. Plus it appears that Microsoft has mercilessly hidden its means of storing Outlook accounts from anyone who might be trying to find them.

During my search I found no "manual" solutions, but I did find several third-part programs to do the job, which leads me to believe that Microsoft made deals with third-party developers that led to the exclusion of the account export feature in newer versions of Outlook.

Nevertheless I was determined to find out how to do it, since there must be a way, and I did, and here it is. It's not pretty but it's also not too difficult.

Open your registry editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1343024091-507921405-725345543-1003\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook

Export the entire Outlook key to a file. You've now backed up your email accounts. To restore the backup to another computer, simply import the backup into the new computer's registry. You may need to delete the Outlook key off the new computer first.

Hope you all find this useful

 

[equazcion]

One thing I forgot to add: the name of that long key beginning with S under HKEY_USERS will be different for every computer/user. But it should begin with the letter S and be followed by a long string of numbers and hyphens (-).

Note also that there are two such keys, identical except that one ends in "_classes" and the other does not. The one WITHOUT the _classes is the one you're looking for.

 

[herrslime]

Dux
This is definitely on the right track. Since I am using Win98SE instead of NT the key is slightly different (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook) but it has the same kind of info.

I can see the key for the current registry. Do you know any way to access the registry from the old drive (drive D)?

Thanks

 

[equazcion]

The location I specified is not for windows NT, but for windows 2000 and XP. 2000 and XP have the NT paths in their registries.

I really don't know how to go about looking at registry files that are not part of the active registry of your system. I do know that the registry of those operating systems (win 9x) is stored in two hidden files in the windows directory, called system.dat and user.dat. Perhaps a look at those files with a text editor would reveal something, or maybe there is a third-party program out there to look at them.

Assuming that both the old OS and new one are win 9x, you could back up your current, active registry, and import the registry files from your D drive - which would allow you to view the old settings using regedit. This would probably mess up your current, active registry, but as long as you have the backup this shouldn't be a problem.

Once again, hope that helps

 

[herrslime]

Dux
Many Thanks

I finally was able to boot the old drive and got access to its registry. Exported the Outlook key and applied it to the new computer. All the accounts transferred over. I did have to reenter all my passwords but I actually like that they did not transfer over.

The location of the registry keys does vary based on the OS but this certainly gave me the right direction

Thanks again