Recover Outlook mail and address book

[automaker]

I think I have the proper forum. If not, somebody please let me know.

I am running XP Pro and office XP. I had my hard drive crash and had to replace it. I was able to recover the folder "Documents and Settings" which I understand is where Office stores things like bookmarks/favorites and Outlook mail and address books. Once I installed XP and Office on the new drive, I copied the recovered "Documents and Settings" over but I don't see bookmarks/favorites under the menu and when I open Outlook, there are no mail messages and nothing in the address book. How do I get these things restored?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[TonyJollans]

You seem to be - perhaps understandably - talking about several different applications, and they store things in different places. Most of what you need should be in Documents and Settings, but some will have been in the Registry.

Your Outlook pst should be in Documents and Settings\(userid)\Local Settings\Microsoft\Outlook

Your Favourites (for Internet Explorer) should be in Documents and Settings\(userid)\Favorites

Your Bookmarks (for Firefox) should be in Documents and Settings\(userid)\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\(some long folder name)\Bookmarks.html

(hope I've remembered those correctly)

Enjoy,
Tony

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[automaker]

Thanks Tony. Yes, I am talking about a couple of different applications. I guess what I need to know is once I have the pre-crash documents and settings folder, how do i get Outlook to use the pre-crash files for mail and address book and how do I get Firefox to use the pre-crash bookmarks?

Mark

 

[TonyJollans]

OK I was guessing a bit about the applications but now you've confirmed ...

With the appliactions closed .. simply copy the files from the original to the equivalent place in the new (overwriting what is there). If you want to play safe, rename the new files first rather than just overwriting (and thus deleting) them.

The Folders with the long names in the Firefox Profiles will be different in old and new - just ignore that.

For the IE Favourites, copy the whole folder.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[automaker]

Thanks Tony. I will give it a try. The real tough one is Outlook. I don't know what the filenames are for the address book and the mail folders. I had tried just copying the pre-crash folders in but I don't think I had it replace existing folders. I will try that and get back to you.

Mark

 

[cckens]

Mark,
If your Outlook is looking for an Exchange mailbox, you just need to set it up. PSTs are generally default located where TonyJollans said above, as are Outlook Offline (.oab)and personal address books (.pab). All the .ost and .oab files are recreated when you set it up to read your Exchange mailbox. If you saved data somewhere else, just do a search in your restored data area for *.pst and *.pab files and you should be able to find 'em.
Cheers,
cckens

 

[automaker]

cckens,
Thanks for the info. I don't have a .pab. I am using the contacts address book in Outlook. I also don't have .pst files. I have (had) folders like the inbox etc. prior to the crash. I would like Outlook to bring in those files so I can access those mail messages. Generally, messages that I want to remove and archive, I save as .msg files and burn them onto cds and then delete them out of Outlook. I would just like to be able to restore my contacts address book and the messages that were in my inbox, sent mail, and other folders I had created within Outlook.

I'll post a note when after I do some searching. I appreciate the help.

Mark

 

[TonyJollans]

Outlook, without Exchange, always has a .pst. That's where it stores mails, contacts, etc. That is the main file you need to get back from your old machine (by default it's called Outlook.pst)

Enjoy,
Tony

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[automaker]

I found the Outlook.pst right where you said it would be. I copied it over to the new drive in the same location. When I launch Outlook, I get an error that Outlook cant open default mail folders. The file Outlook.pst is not a personal folders file. Any ideas?

Mark

 

[TonyJollans]

If Outlook tells you that the file is not a personal folders file then there is something wrong with the file and I don't think there is much you can do.

If you reinstate the new pst on the new machine, and put the one from the old machine somewhere else on the new machine (desktop, say) can you then navigate to, and open, the old one from Outlook?

Enjoy,
Tony

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[automaker]

Tony,
I will give it a try and let you know.

By the way, I was able to retrieve my Firefox bookmarks. That went just like you said. Thanks,

Mark

 

[automaker]

Tony,
Assuming there are problems with my Outlook.pst file, I browsed the internet and found many programs that claim to repair these files. Do you have any experience with any of these?

Mark

 

[TonyJollans]

Sorry, Mark, no I don't. On odd occasions when I have had problems (due to power cuts or similar) Outlook has managed fine to recover them itself.

A quick question - you are using the same (or a newer) version of Outlook in your new setup, aren't you?

Enjoy,
Tony

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[automaker]

Tony,
I am using the same version of Outlook.

 

[Paulus631]

Exacly what version of outlook are you using? 2000, 2003 or 2007, or even XP

 

[automaker]

I am running Windows XP pro and I am fairly certain I am running Office XP. It is possible I have Office 2003 on that machine. I will have to check to be sure.

Mark

 

[automaker]

Gentlemen,
I am running Office 2003 on this machine.
I was able to fix Outlook.
When I copied the Outlook.pst over it came in at some size. I checked and the copy in the recovered folder was slightly bigger. I copied it over again and now it works. So your advice was correct.

Thanks a bunch guys. I owe you one.

Mark

 

[TonyJollans]

Glad you're sorted

Enjoy,
Tony

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