I need help moving my current address book to my new PC!!!!

[Dan Ramsey]

I very recently (as in 2 dayas ago) bought a new PC to
replace one that was about 4 years old and was starting to
do funny things (the technician said that I had
an "intermittently failing hard drive"). So, I need some
help in moving my Address Book from the 'Contacts' folder
in Outlook 2000 on my old PC to the 'Contacts' folder in
Outlook 2003 on my new PC so that I can access it.

I have already run the "Export to a File" function on my
old PC and successfully downloaded the Address Book into
a .CSV file and then, using Excel, saved a second version
as an .XLS file. I don't use Outlook for contact
management (I have ACT! 6.0 for that), so the only fields
that are used in my Address Book are the First Name, Last
Name, and E-Mail Address fields.

I tried doing an "Import" operation on my new PC using
Excel 2003 and importing from the .XLS file that I had
created. However, following the import operation (which
seemed to go smoothly), when I clicked on the small
Address Book icon along the top toolbar, it appeared to be
empty. However, when I clicked on the larger "Contacts"
tab in the lower-left hand corner, the first and last
names were indeed there, but there we no accompanying e-
mail addresses.

My suspicion is that I may need to do the "Import"
operation from the .CSV file instead of from the
converted .XLS file.

Since people are buying new PCs all the time and moving
their Address Books over to them, I'm assuming that this
is a fairly common issue. Can anyone out there help me?

Thanks a bunch in advance!

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Stop!
There is absolutely no reason to export any data. That's a good way to lose
or corrupt data. You are not changing file formats here.
Simply copy your PST file and configure your new installation to use it. All
your data is in that file.

To use another PST file (such as one from an earlier installation) and set
it to be the default for your current installation of Outlook, you will
first need to know the location and name of the PST file you'd like to use
as your new default. Then use the following directions:

- Go to Tools > Options > Mail Setup > Data Files > Add...
- Add the PST you'd like as your new default, then Close > OK to exit the
Options dialog
- Go to Tools > E-mail Accounts > View or change existing e-mail accounts
- Select the PST you just added in the "Deliver New e-mail to the following
location" dropdown (it will most likely appear just below the current
default Personal Folders file) > Finish
- Exit and Restart Outlook
- You can now close the previous default PST (R-click on that pst folder
while in Folder View and select "Close <foldername> Folders"). If you have
any information in your former PST that you'd like to transfer to your new
default PST, you can drag and drop from one to the other before you close
the old one.

 

[JT]

Instead of going the CSV file route, I find it easier to go to "import/export", then "export to file" then chose "personal file folder (.PST). then it'll show the outlook file structure like you seen everyday. You would then highlight the contacts folder, and hit next and it'll auto name it backup.pst. save it where you can find it. then on the new PC, import again, again choose file, then PST, then browse to the .PST file you saved. Its much easier. You can also copy everything by going to the folder in windows that contains the .PST file. if your using win2k or XP its under c:\documents and setting\(whatever the user name your using is)\local settings application data\microsoft\outlook\outlook.PST. or for win98 c:\windows\local settings\application data\microsoft\outlook\outlook.pst. (You have to have hidden files and folders visable to browse down these paths.) then you can follow the same procedure as the first part, except that it'll import everything from calander, mail, contacts, etc

hope this helps

JT