How do I copy the Outlook Contacts file?

[Rashied]

I've just replaced my laptop's hard drive and need my contacts to do
business. I've read a couple of the instructions for people with my same
question, but I still have problems doing so. I managed it before, when I
copied my Contacts from my laptop to Outlook under my profile on my wife's
desktop. Now I can find the pst file, but it's one big file and not just the
contacts. I don't understand anymore how to access just the contacts, and
e-mail it to myself to download on the laptop (nothing to save it onto, and
networking is not-working).

PLEASE HELP!!!!

 

[Rashied]

I did this before using the network, through the hub. Now the network places
are gone and I just need to be able to find the file on the desktop, e-mail
the file to myself and download it on the laptop to the proper location. I
feel as dumb as an anchor because I don't know how to find the Contacts part
of the Personal Folder anymore. Extremely frustrating. Now I've just
remembered that the guy didn't save my Favorites folder either, with hundreds
of critical research links, and I'm in the middle of a manuscript...

 

[Rashied]

Anchor-Man here again, trying to be self-sufficient and show some initiative,
and failing miserably. I found the PST file, copied it to My Docs, then
burned to a CD. Took that to the laptop, and Windows can't read it. Tried
e-mailing straight from the desktop's Outlook folder, but at 312Mb, it's a
hefty care package. Running XP Pro and Outlook '03 on the laptop. What else
can I try to get this resolved?

 

[Gordon]

Anchor-Man here again, trying to be self-sufficient and show some
initiative,
and failing miserably. I found the PST file, copied it to My Docs, then
burned to a CD. Took that to the laptop, and Windows can't read it.

How do you mean "Windows can't read it"? What is "it"? The CD or the file on
the CD? if the latter, then that's normal - only Outlook can read a pst
file.

 

[Rashied]

Hi, Gordon,

I was trying to drag and drop the file to the right folder, not actually
"read" the file; that it can only be opened by Outlook was clear to me from
when I drag-dropped the file to my wife's desktop several months ago. Now, I
just have the file on CD and can't do anything with it, least of all copy it
to the proper folder.

 

[Rashied]

All that and I didn't answer the question, really. Windows is not reading
the disk, which puzzles me because it's brand new. The dialogue box says
that the disk may be corrupted or using an incompatible format. Does that
sound remotely probable?

 

[Gordon]

Hi, Gordon,

I was trying to drag and drop the file to the right folder, not actually
"read" the file; that it can only be opened by Outlook was clear to me
from
when I drag-dropped the file to my wife's desktop several months ago.
Now, I
just have the file on CD and can't do anything with it, least of all copy
it
to the proper folder.

What do you mean by "can't do anything with it"? Can you read the CD? Can
you copy the file from the CD to your HDD?

 

[Rashied]

No; I can neither read the CD nor copy the file from the CD to the HDD. I'm
getting a dialogue box that tells me that the disk is not formatted, and that
it is either corrupted or using an incompatible format. The reason this
puzzles me is that I haven't had to format the CDs for anything else. Is
there a difference in a CD that one copies data files to and one that is used
for copying music files to? Maybe I'm using the wrong kind of disk.

 

[Gordon]

No; I can neither read the CD nor copy the file from the CD to the HDD.
I'm
getting a dialogue box that tells me that the disk is not formatted, and
that
it is either corrupted or using an incompatible format. The reason this
puzzles me is that I haven't had to format the CDs for anything else. Is
there a difference in a CD that one copies data files to and one that is
used
for copying music files to? Maybe I'm using the wrong kind of disk.

Did you finalize the CD when you burned it on the other machine?

 

[Rashied]

I thought that was already a part of its process, but I'll try redoing it and
see if that makes a difference. I'll let you know the outcome. Thanks for
trying to help me, Gordon; much appreciated. I'll be in touch.

 

[Rashied]

Hi, Gordon. I brought my laptop to work today, and for some inexplicable
reason, the laptop can now read the CD. However, after locating the
Outlook.pst file in the folder at {C:\Documents and Settings\DELL\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook} and trying to copy the file from
the CD to the folder, I got an error message:

Cannot copy Outlook: Data Error (cyclic reduncancy check)

What does this mean and how do I overcome it?

 

[Rashied]

O.k., Gordon; I ran chkdsk which determined that my Outlook.pst (the one I
saved on the CD) is corrupted. Before I'd run chkdsk on it, and tried to
copy it to the Outlook folder it would have eventually resided in, I noted
after the first time that the first Outlook.pst file (the one I was trying to
replace) was no longer there. A search for the file did not discover its
whereabouts, but I continue to get the cyclic redundancy error.

MS says I should use the Inbox Repair Tool to recover the folders from the
corrupted Outlook.pst, so I ran the utility. It told me that the file I have
on the CD is read-only and cannot be repaired.

I'm going to try copying the Outlook.pst file I saved to my wife's desktop
to a new CD, then try the operation again. I'll let you know how I fare.

 

[Gordon]

MS says I should use the Inbox Repair Tool to recover the folders from the
corrupted Outlook.pst, so I ran the utility. It told me that the file I
have
on the CD is read-only and cannot be repaired.

You can't run Scanpst on a pst file on a CD. You will have to cop it to your
HDD to use that function.

 

[Rashied]

You can't run Scanpst on a pst file on a CD. You will have to cop it to your
HDD to use that function.

Hi, Gordon. Well, I managed to get hold of my old HDD, so I found the old
..pst from it and copy it to my new HDD, so that part's resolved and
eliminates having ot use the CD copy of my wife's copy of the original.
However, I now have my old messages, up to May '07, which was the last time I
used Outlook on the old HDD.

I can live with that, I guess.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to associate the contacts in that .pst with
the new address book, because when I click on the Address Book button, it
doesn't show me the contacts, but instead says:

"The address list could not be displayed. The Contacts folder associated
with this list could not be opened; it may have been moved or deleted, or you
may not have permissions. For information on how to remove this folder from
the Outlook Address Book, see Microsoft Outlook Help". I'll be trying that,
but any further help you can be will still be very much appreciated.

 

[Rashied]

Hi, Gordon,

I said:

Now I'm trying to figure out how to associate the contacts in that .pst with
the new address book, because when I click on the Address Book button, it
doesn't show me the contacts [...]

I had hell trying to figure out some of the instructions, but finally (and
thanks to a response from Russ on 5/24/06 to someone else with the same
question, I at least knew where to go and do my fiddling. I'm back on
Outlook track now; thanks for taking the time to help me.

 

[Gordon]

Hi, Gordon,

I said:

Now I'm trying to figure out how to associate the contacts in that .pst with
the new address book, because when I click on the Address Book button, it
doesn't show me the contacts [...]

I had hell trying to figure out some of the instructions, but finally (and
thanks to a response from Russ on 5/24/06 to someone else with the same
question, I at least knew where to go and do my fiddling. I'm back on
Outlook track now; thanks for taking the time to help me.

You're welcome.