Unable to remove personal folders

[colinrharris]

Outlook 2000 running on an XP Pro PC. The user has somehow managed to create a second set of personal folders. I can find both the original and the unwanted .pst files but am unable to locate where in Outlook 2000 to stop the unwanted one from loading so that I can delete it. I have searched the web, including the MS knowledgebase and everything I have read points me to the Mail icon in Control Panel, where there is supposed to be a tab called Services - there is no such tab in this case or to Tools> Services within Outlook - this is not there either.

I use Outlook 2003 and here, the setting is located in Tools> Options> Mail Setup> Data Files.

Can someone please advise me where this is in Outlook 2000.

Thanks

 

[smah]

In Outlook 2000, Services is only available when set up as Corporate/Workgroup mode. It won't appear in Internet Only mode. The behavior that you're seeing is usually caused by a corrupt profile but before we explore that avenue, open the folder list & click the pushpin to keep it open. Do you see 2 personal folders? Can 1 be closed with a right-click?

 

[colinrharris]

Thanks for your reply.

There are two personal folders, the one that was originally there and another one. I can close the original one, however, the new (unwanted) one is receiving the mail and cannot be deleted. What I want to do is to receive mail in the original inbox and delete the other one.

There is another conected issue. The Outlook contacts appear in the original personal folders but do not appear in the address book, presumably because it is not set as the mail recipient and the new (unwanted) personal folders do not have any contacts and therefore the address book is empty.

 

[smah]

Probably the best solution is to create a new Outlook Profile. Before starting, not the path to the pst file that you want to use. Then, go to Control Panel, Mail, Add a new profile that uses the correct pst file. When everything is working with this new profile, go back and delete the problematic one.

 

[colinrharris]

Just a few more questions before I do this.

When I create the new profile, do I just move the existing mail, calendar, contacts, etc. into it or is it best to import from the existing .pst files? How do I get the contacts folder to become the default address book?

Thanks.

 

[smah]

In a standalone installation of Outlook, everything is contained within that pst file. When you create the new profile, you can just tell it to use the already existing pst file - no moving or importing required. You will however, need to reenter all the mail account information.