Unusual upgrade problem 1

[jraef]

This is a somewhat unusual problem, though hopefully not unique!

I lost my HDD, or so I thought. I was using Win2000 and Office2000. When I bought the replacement HDD, I decided to upgrade to XP-Pro and Office2003. No problems there. I decided later to see if my entire old HDD was dead or if I just lost the boot sector, so I added it back in as a slave and voila! I had just lost the boot sector, so I can recover my data! Lucky me, I forgot to buy a Lottery ticket, could have probably won that too.

Now the unusual part. In Outlook2003, I can't set up one of my email accounts because I lost the server address in the crash. 4 years ago I was given a back door IP number that got me directly into the company email POP3 server (located across the country). The IT manager who gave that to me is long gone, and nobody else admits that this address even exists, finding it strange that it has worked for me up until yesterday. They want me to go through TermServer, but when I do, I am left without being able to move files directly to my local drive, something essential to me, without remailing them to my Gmail account, which is a PITA workaround.

What I want to do is look at the sectret server address I had in the account properties of my old Outlook2000 that is still on the old HDD, but XP will not allow me to run it now. I tried to get Outlook2003 to import, but it says there is no older program to import from. In fact, I can't import my old address book either for the same reason. It appears that outlook for XP can't recognize files from Outlook for Win2000 I guess.

I tried removing the new Outlook2003 to see if XP was not allowing a conflict, but now when I try to run Outlook2000 from the old drive, it tells me I have to install it from the original source disk, which I no longer have.

There must be a file in Outlook2000 that contains that server address, but I can't find it and MS has been no help (no surprise there). Anyone have any ideas?

 

[campyracr]

You could try pinging the server name.
Open command prompt and type ping %servername
You should get something like:

Pinging %servername [10.15.172.93] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 10.15.172.93: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=124
Reply from 10.15.172.93: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=124
Reply from 10.15.172.93: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=124
Reply from 10.15.172.93: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=124

That will get you one address to the server. Keep in mind your server may have more than one IP address, and if your infrastracture is big enough may have more than one exchange server.

A better solution would be to explain your situation to the IT manager/ email guru. If you can justify the business case (moving files, etc.) he/she might feel your pain.

 

[jraef]

Thanks, that worked.
As it turned out, it's the same server that they have me use for Term Server after all, it's just that nobody else knew that. I love it, I now know something the IT guys don't!

Actually, I think it's more likely that they just didn't give it much thought because it was a puny problem compared to other things they have to deal with every day. But it felt good for a moment anyway.

I also figured out a way to import my old address book from the old drive as well, so I'm back in business.