Conversion issues still left see post for questions

[johncat]

I have made good progress from my other post. I had Outlook 2003 on my Win
XP laptop, and installed a trial Outlook 2007 on a desktop computer for
testing. Then I got a new laptop with vista and Outlook 2007. I copied my
outlook.pst from the trial desktop to the new vista laptop. I also had some
new appointments and contacts and calendars from the original Win XP Laptop.
On the new Vista Outlook, I started with the outlook.pst from the trial. I
then exported 3 other calendars from the original Win XP laptop to individual
pst files and opened them in my new outlook. I got most issues resolved.
Here are the problems I have left. Any thoughts on any of these??

1. The 3 Calendars that I exported and opened in my new Outlook have
created 2 entries apiece in the side paned under Calendars Tab. For example,
I have a "Band Calendar in Band Calendar" entry, and also a "Calendar in Band
Calendar entry. The first one has my data, and the second one is empty. Why
do I have two? If I delete the second one, I lose the Calendar. I would
like to clean that up.

2. One of my Calendars loaded this way, I would like to have a password any
time it is clicked on. Can this be done?? I found that I can put a password
on the pst file which will prompt when outlook is opened, but I want it to
prompt every time that calendar is accessed.

3. My contacts are built into the otlook pst file. there are 348 contacts.
My old Outlook has 378 contacts. I want to copy the new contacts from the
old file into the new file. However, I cant do this. THe copy feature is
not working. If I export the old contacts and re-open that file on the new
Outlook, it creates a new Contacts entry in the left panel, but it is
separate from the "default contacts". I want to merge the new into the old.
Any Ideas??

4. As I said, I created three new Calendar pst files and have them listed
on the calendars side bar tab. However, it appears that my MAIN Calendar and
my contacts (as stated in 3 above) are built into the base outlook.pst file.
Is there any way that I can separate my MAIN Calendar and my Contacts into
separate pst files, and then have the separate pst files become the defaults
for the left panel tabs??

5. I was getting a popup box that the Outlook data file did not close and
Outlook is being checked for problems. That was coming up everytime I opened
Outlook. The last few times I opened Outlook, it has not come up but was
consistent before.

6. Scanpst is not working. When I try to run it it says "the application
has failed to start because scnpst32.dll was not found.

I know these were lengthy and confusing, but I tried to give as much info as
I could. Can anyone answer any of these questions??? Thanks. John

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have made good progress from my other post. I had Outlook 2003 on
my Win XP laptop, and installed a trial Outlook 2007 on a desktop
computer for testing. Then I got a new laptop with vista and Outlook
2007. I copied my outlook.pst from the trial desktop to the new
vista laptop.

And after you did, how did you connect that PST to Outlook?

I also had some new appointments and contacts and
calendars from the original Win XP Laptop. On the new Vista Outlook,
I started with the outlook.pst from the trial. I then exported 3
other calendars from the original Win XP laptop to individual pst
files and opened them in my new outlook.

When transferring data from Outlook to Outlook, it's wise to never use
export and import. When you say "opened them in my new Outlook", do you
mean File>Open>Outlook Data File?

I got most issues resolved.
Here are the problems I have left. Any thoughts on any of these??

1. The 3 Calendars that I exported and opened in my new Outlook have
created 2 entries apiece in the side paned under Calendars Tab. For
example, I have a "Band Calendar in Band Calendar" entry, and also a
"Calendar in Band Calendar entry. The first one has my data, and the
second one is empty. Why do I have two? If I delete the second one,
I lose the Calendar. I would like to clean that up.

Start with a new mail profile. Add to it just those PSTs you wish to see.

2. One of my Calendars loaded this way, I would like to have a
password any time it is clicked on. Can this be done??

You can password-protect an entire PST. You cannot password-protect at the
folder level. Outlook's folders are not real objects, just keys within the
PST file.

I found that
I can put a password on the pst file which will prompt when outlook
is opened, but I want it to prompt every time that calendar is
accessed.

Can't be done.

3. My contacts are built into the otlook pst file. there are 348
contacts. My old Outlook has 378 contacts. I want to copy the new
contacts from the old file into the new file. However, I cant do
this. THe copy feature is not working.

What does "not working" mean? Describe exactly how you're trying to copy
the data, wheat happens when you try, and the exact text of any errors you
receive.

If I export the old contacts

Don't export anything. Just copy the old PST, place it somewhere on the
hard drive (being careful to never overwrite a PST of the same name). Open
it in Outlook. Its folders will appear int eh FOlder list and you'll have
complete access to all the data they contain.

and re-open that file on the new Outlook, it creates a new Contacts
entry in the left panel, but it is separate from the "default
contacts". I want to merge the new into the old. Any Ideas??

What do you expect to happen? If you want to merge, copy the data from the
old to the new PST, then close the old PST to remove it from the folder
list. If you mean combine data in one contact record with a corresponding
contact record, you'll need third-party tools for that.

4. As I said, I created three new Calendar pst files and have them
listed on the calendars side bar tab. However, it appears that my
MAIN Calendar and my contacts (as stated in 3 above) are built into
the base outlook.pst file. Is there any way that I can separate my
MAIN Calendar and my Contacts into separate pst files, and then have
the separate pst files become the defaults for the left panel tabs??

No. Only one PST can be the default.

5. I was getting a popup box that the Outlook data file did not
close and Outlook is being checked for problems. That was coming up
everytime I opened Outlook. The last few times I opened Outlook, it
has not come up but was consistent before.

Usually caused by something keeping Outlook open the last time you think it
closed.

6. Scanpst is not working. When I try to run it it says "the
application has failed to start because scnpst32.dll was not found.

See if Help>Office DIagnostics help or reinstall SCANPST from the
installation kit.

 

[johncat]

Brian, thanks for taking the time to respond to ALL of my questions. I am
far from an Outlook expert and some things may be slightly over my head, so
bear with me please. First to answer your questions:

And after you did, how did you connect that PST to Outlook?

I initially renamed the original install pst to outlook.ori and
copied my old outlook.pst over and opened outlook

When transferring data from Outlook to Outlook, it's wise to never use
export and import. When you say "opened them in my new Outlook", do you
mean File>Open>Outlook Data File?

Yes, I exported the data to a .pst then did File>Open>Outlook Data
File

What does "not working" mean?

My original contacts from the outlook.pst has 348 contacts. I
exported my current contacts from my old outlook to a contacts.pst and opened
it in the new Outlook. There are 378 there. But, I have my Contacts tab in
the left panel with the default 348 contacts, and a separate contacts folder
with the 378. I just want the one default contacts to have the 378 and no
second folder. so I tried to copy from the new contacts folder to the old
default contacts. It appears to complete, but all it does is create ANOTHER
folder called contacts1 and there are still only 348 in the default folder
which I believe is from the outlook.pst file.

What do you expect to happen?

I am trying to make the default contact list with 348 contacts
actually become the new list with 378. But I dont want the second contacts
folder, I want to copy from the new to the default. But as I said, the copy
doesnt over write the default, it just creates a a new folder and the default
contacts stays at the 348. If I delete the file I was copying from, the
default still stays at 348.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I initially renamed the original install pst to outlook.ori
and copied my old outlook.pst over and opened outlook

That will corrupt your mail profile. Never do that.

Yes, I exported the data to a .pst then did
File>Open>Outlook Data File

Why export? You already have a PST. Just use it. Exporting loses data.
So does importing.

My original contacts from the outlook.pst has 348 contacts.
I exported my current contacts from my old outlook to a contacts.pst
and opened it in the new Outlook. There are 378 there. But, I have
my Contacts tab in the left panel with the default 348 contacts, and
a separate contacts folder with the 378.

Did you assess where the differences lay?

I just want the one default
contacts to have the 378 and no second folder. so I tried to copy
from the new contacts folder to the old default contacts. It appears
to complete, but all it does is create ANOTHER folder called
contacts1 and there are still only 348 in the default folder which I
believe is from the outlook.pst file.

You're trying to copy the folder itself. You can't. Open one contact
folder, select the items you wish to copy (Ctrl-A will select them all,
click/Ctrl-click or shift-click will select ranges), then right-click and
drag them to the other Contacts folder. Choose COpy (or MOve, if you wish)
when you release the button. WHen finished, right-click the PST root and
choose Close to remove it from the mail profile.

However, if you just reuse your original PST, you won't have ANY
moving/copying to do between folder sets because you'll have only one folder
set. WIth Outlook closed, use the Mail applet in Control Panel to create a
new mail profile and add the original PST to that profile as the delivery
location. Do not add any other PST.

 

[johncat]

Brian, you keep giving me good info, and I am slowly learning. I think what
I am not making very clear is that I had TWO outlook.pst that I wanted to
merge. I started with a pst file I will call number one. I then had a
second pst that was at one time identical to the first, but then there were
several items added (ie 30 contacts). But I wanted to keep the formatting
and Calendar of the Number 1 pst. So I started with it as a base and wanted
to copy my data from the second pst. I didnt know how to do that without
exporting. However, I think you are correct in stating that I was trying to
copy an entire folder. That is what I was trying to do. I just did it by
selecting all, and copy/past for my contacts and it worked. So my contacts
are squared away now.
So here is what is left. My Calendar. Right now, I have a base
Calendar and three other Calendars. I believe the base calendar is part of
the outlook.pst file and the other three calendars are from individual pst
files that I created by exporting to a pst from the old outlook then doing a
file-open pst from the new outlook. So what I think I have is the base
calendar as part of the base pst, and then the 2 separate pst calendars.
This works, but is a littel messy. Am I better to have the separate pst
files for the other three calendars or should I merge them into the base
pst?? Which is better?? For backup purposes, would I be better to somehow
export or copy my base calendar into a separate pst file?? My outlook.pst
file is over 3gb in size. Yet all my individual psts are much smaller so I
am not sure where the extra size is coming from. Finally, I never knew there
was a "profile" until you started mentioning it here. So far I have not had
to do anything with it. If I corrupted it, I am not seeing any signs of that
so far other than my scanpst wont work. But I havent looked deep into that
yet. Thanks again!!

 

[Brian Tillman]

Brian, you keep giving me good info, and I am slowly learning. I
think what I am not making very clear is that I had TWO outlook.pst
that I wanted to merge. I started with a pst file I will call number
one. I then had a second pst that was at one time identical to the
first, but then there were several items added (ie 30 contacts). But
I wanted to keep the formatting and Calendar of the Number 1 pst.

So, make PST1 the delivery location (i.e., the default folders). Add the
second PST. Open each folder in PST2 and copy the items in it that you wish
to keep to the corresponding folder of PST1. If the PST2 folder is NOT a
default folder, you can copy the entire folder. If it is a default folder,
you must open it and copy only the contents.

I started with it as a base and wanted to copy my data from the
second pst. I didnt know how to do that without exporting.

Exporting moves data from a Outlook to some external file. You cannot add
data to Outlook by exporting, only by importing or, in the case of PSTs, by
having them both in the same open mail profile and using Outlook to copy the
data between PSTs.

So here is what is left. My Calendar. Right now, I have a base
Calendar and three other Calendars. I believe the base calendar is
part of the outlook.pst file and the other three calendars are from
individual pst files that I created by exporting to a pst from the
old outlook then doing a file-open pst from the new outlook.

Next time, simply copy the old PST to a flash drive or burn it to a CD to
transport it to the other PC, copy it to the hard drive of the new PC
(taking care to NOT overwrite an existing PST), remove the read-only
attribute (if using a CD for transport), then open that PST in Outlook. How
could you have gotten three PSTs, each with its own calendar when you had
only one PST to start with on the old PC?

So what
I think I have is the base calendar as part of the base pst, and then
the 2 separate pst calendars. This works, but is a littel messy. Am
I better to have the separate pst files for the other three calendars
or should I merge them into the base pst?? Which is better??

Whatever you find convenient is what is better. Unless you have a
third-party tool, Outlook won't fire reminders from any but the default
calendar, so tat may influence what you wish to do.

To combine the contents of two calendar folders, open the source calendar,
display it in a table view like By Category, select all the items in it with
CTRL-A, then copy the selection to the destination calendar folder. Of
course, the selection doesn't have to be the entire calendar contents. You
can pick only specific categories, for example, or you could sort the
calendar table by date and select only those items newer than a specific
date.

For backup purposes, would I be better to somehow export or copy my base
calendar into a separate pst file??

Are you not also interested in backing up your contacts, tasks, email,
notes, and all the other data Outlook contains? Why concern yourself with
the calendar only? The PST contains ALL your data. Simply make a copy of
it while Outlook is closed and store that copy on some external medium or a
second hard drive. You might want to read this:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm
You might want to get this:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...3A-B7D0-4B16-B8AF-5A6322F4FD01&displaylang=en

My outlook.pst file is over 3gb
in size. Yet all my individual psts are much smaller so I am not
sure where the extra size is coming from. Finally, I never knew
there was a "profile" until you started mentioning it here. So far I
have not had to do anything with it. If I corrupted it, I am not
seeing any signs of that so far other than my scanpst wont work. But
I havent looked deep into that yet.

There are several effects that show up most frequently when the mail profile
is corrupt and one of them is that you will not see your Contacts folder in
the Outlook Address Book interface when you click To and try to address a
message. You may also get references to invalid folders, since the mail
profile will have references to the old PST that you overwrote and the new
PST may not have the same internal pointers. You might want to read this:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm

 

[johncat]

Brian, I have been working on your suggestions, and lookin at the links and
working through a few things while learning. I created a new profile and I
am starting to convert (copy) my data to as previously described. However,
my new profile and outlook.pst file does not have any of my config
information from the original pst. This includes my calendar categories, and
other config options. Is there a way that I can copy all of that config from
the original pst to the new one???? If so, will I then when done be able to
rename my new pst from its current name that the profile created, back to the
default outlook.pst?
If not, then I can just use the original pst with the new profile i
believe. but there are a couple problems I may see. First, my old pst was
over 3gb in size. I am not sure why, but the new one is only 1.7MB. I am
not sure why the old one is so large. But I like the smaller size. The
other thing is, when I opened the old pst I can see the data. However, i now
have data from both the old pst AND the new one. Is there some way I can
then make the old one the default for everything so that I can then delete
the new one created under the new profile?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Brian, I have been working on your suggestions, and lookin at the
links and working through a few things while learning. I created a
new profile and I am starting to convert (copy) my data to as
previously described. However, my new profile and outlook.pst file
does not have any of my config information from the original pst.
This includes my calendar categories, and other config options.

I don't know what you mean by "other config options", but if you're simply
copying the items from the old data store to the new, the categories will
copy, since they're in the items. Have you enabled color categories? You
might want to see this as well: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/olcat.asp

Is there a way that I can copy all of that config from the original pst
to the new one????

You'll have to explain what "all of that config" means.

If so, will I then when done be able to rename my
new pst from its current name that the profile created, back to the
default outlook.pst? If not, then I can just use the original pst
with the new profile i
believe.

Never rename or overwrite a PST that is part of a mail profile. You will
corrupt the profile.

but there are a couple problems I may see. First, my old
pst was over 3gb in size. I am not sure why, but the new one is only
1.7MB. I am not sure why the old one is so large. But I like the
smaller size.

White space, possibly. White space is space taken by items that have been
marked as deleted. White space remains in a PST to make allocation quicker.
Instead of asking for additional disk space from the file system (a process
that is "expensive" in time and computer resources), Outlook simply reuses
the space already in the PST that isn't being used for other purposes.

The other thing is, when I opened the old pst I can
see the data. However, i now have data from both the old pst AND the
new one. Is there some way I can then make the old one the default
for everything so that I can then delete the new one created under
the new profile?

Sure. That's what you should have done in the first place, im my opinion.
Tools>Account Settings>Data Files tab. Mark the old PST as the delivery
location. Stop and restart Outlook. Close the new PST installing Outlook
created (right-click>Close in the Navigation Pane). You'll be back to just
the original PST with all the data and settings it contains.

 

[johncat]

Brian: We are getting closer. Yes, the config information I am talking
about is the categories and the options (tools-options). My new profile
didnt have categories. Your link below told me how to upgrade to color
categories, which I did, and now have categories. Now the problem. They are
all messed up. I had categories assigned and personalized on the 4000
calendar items I copied from my old outlook into the new outlook profile
calendar. After I updated to color categories, I have them, kinda. They are
not correct. The colors do not match the category name in most cases. Also,
some of the categories are not there and some of the colors just say for
example (blue category) instead of what they should be named. A lot of the
calendar items do not have the right category names or colors assigned, and
several calendar items have more than one category assigned that should only
have one. This appears to be a problem with the new profile because the
results are the same if I open up the original pst file in this eprofile.
HOWEVER, If I open the old pst file in the old profile, all is fine with the
categorys and the calendar items. It took me days to create and assign
categories to each item and I really cant go through all of that again. Any
idea how to sync them up?? Then the other part was just is there any way to
copy the option settings from the old to the new profile without having to go
through each setting individually?? Thanks!!!

 

[johncat]

Brian: We are getting closer. Yes, the config information I am talking
about is the categories and the options (tools-options). My new profile
didnt have categories. Your link below told me how to upgrade to color
categories, which I did, and now have categories. Now the problem. They are
all messed up. I had categories assigned and personalized on the 4000
calendar items I copied from my old outlook into the new outlook profile
calendar. After I updated to color categories, I have them, kinda. They are
not correct. The colors do not match the category name in most cases. Also,
some of the categories are not there and some of the colors just say for
example (blue category) instead of what they should be named. A lot of the
calendar items do not have the right category names or colors assigned, and
several calendar items have more than one category assigned that should only
have one. This appears to be a problem with the new profile because the
results are the same if I open up the original pst file in this eprofile.
HOWEVER, If I open the old pst file in the old profile, all is fine with the
categorys and the calendar items. It took me days to create and assign
categories to each item and I really cant go through all of that again. Any
idea how to sync them up?? Then the other part was just is there any way to
copy the option settings from the old to the new profile without having to go
through each setting individually?? Thanks!!!

 

[Brian Tillman]

Brian: We are getting closer. Yes, the config information I am
talking about is the categories and the options (tools-options). My
new profile didnt have categories. Your link below told me how to
upgrade to color categories, which I did, and now have categories.
Now the problem. They are all messed up. I had categories assigned
and personalized on the 4000 calendar items I copied from my old
outlook into the new outlook profile calendar. After I updated to
color categories, I have them, kinda. They are not correct. The
colors do not match the category name in most cases.

Categories don't have colors until you assign them colors. Alternatively,
you can rename the colors you want to match the categories you had. The
label colors from the prior version don't translater to color categories.

Also, some of
the categories are not there and some of the colors just say for
example (blue category) instead of what they should be named. A lot
of the calendar items do not have the right category names or colors
assigned, and several calendar items have more than one category
assigned that should only have one.

I spent some time rearranging colors and categories when I upgraded as well.
I didn't find it all that difficult.

This appears to be a problem
with the new profile because the results are the same if I open up
the original pst file in this eprofile. HOWEVER, If I open the old
pst file in the old profile, all is fine with the categorys and the
calendar items.

Why are you not simply reusing that old PST as your delivery location, then?

 

[johncat]

The categories were crated from the same version of outlook. The problem is
in the profile. If I open the pst with my old profile, the categories are
fine. If I open the same pst with my new profile, they are messed up. I
want to keep my new profile because that new pst file is only a handful of MB
in size while the same data in the old pst is over 3GB (this is the answer to
your final questions below). So now all my data is there and good in the new
profile pst except these categories. 4000 entries would take me a long time
to have to re-do especially if I can open them correctly in the old (larger)
profile. I hope that makes sense.

 

[Brian Tillman]

The categories were crated from the same version of outlook. The
problem is in the profile. If I open the pst with my old profile,
the categories are fine. If I open the same pst with my new profile,
they are messed up. I want to keep my new profile because that new
pst file is only a handful of MB in size while the same data in the
old pst is over 3GB (this is the answer to your final questions
below). So now all my data is there and good in the new profile pst
except these categories. 4000 entries would take me a long time to
have to re-do especially if I can open them correctly in the old
(larger) profile. I hope that makes sense.

I can't help you, I'm afraid. My personal inclination would be to use the
profile and PST that perform the functions you want. 3 GB is a pittance
with today's hard drives. Did you try compacting that PST?

 

[johncat]

Brian, I really appreciate your help!!! Compacting my original pst was the
answer for me. I didint even know you could do that. It took my original
pst from 3GB to 25MB. I am stable for now and finally got things where I
want them to start. Thanks for all of your responses. John

 

[Brian Tillman]

Brian, I really appreciate your help!!! Compacting my original pst
was the answer for me. I didint even know you could do that. It
took my original pst from 3GB to 25MB. I am stable for now and
finally got things where I want them to start. Thanks for all of
your responses. John

You're welcome. I'm glad it's working as you wish.