Importing data from my pst file to a new profile

[Jeff]

I'm hoping somone can help me untangle a mess I've made.

Outlook 2007, Exchange Server 2007.



Here's the story. Computer needed a reformat etc, so I saved all outlook
data (about 1gb, over 200 folders) to a pst file. Did the reformat,
installed Outlook and imported from the pst file whilst connected to my
Exchange server (my big mistake perhaps?) and now I have TWO copies of
absolutely everything.

I've checked in the webmail interface, and there are two copies visible
there too - I guess the server synced with this local copy or something.

So now you can see I'm not sure what I'm doing, and that I've made a mess.
Going through and manually deleting one copy of every message etc is a
non-starter.



Truth is, I don't fully understand the difference between a pst and an ost,
even after reading all about them. I need to be able to work on my email
offline, so I think this means I use a pst file locally - right?



I have tried to reinstall from the pst again (thinking that if this works, I
could delete EVERYTHING and then reinstall the pst again?) but I get a
message saying 'this pst file is already in use in this profile'



Anyway, what I guess I'm asking is this: What is the CORRECT way to import
all my data from the pst file I created two days ago, and get all that data
into a new Exchange profile, without duplicates being created?



Of course, I can no longer simply create a new profile and let it download
the data from the Exchange server, because the server now seems to hold two
copies of everything.



I need to sort this quickly, because mail that has arrived since I did the
reinstallation two days ago is going to be lost if I'm not careful. Please
help me sort out the mess I've made. Thanks for being here.

Jeff

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Here's the story. Computer needed a reformat etc, so I saved all outlook
data (about 1gb, over 200 folders) to a pst file. Did the reformat,
installed Outlook and imported from the pst file whilst connected to my
Exchange server (my big mistake perhaps?) and now I have TWO copies of
absolutely everything.

I've checked in the webmail interface, and there are two copies visible
there too - I guess the server synced with this local copy or something.

You did it to yourself. When you use Exchange, everything is on the server in
the Exchange mailbox, not local to your PC. Your PC could blow up or get
shoved out the window and nothing will happen to your data, since it's on the
server. All you need to to is to create a new Exchange account and voila! all
your data is back again. By saving it locally and then importing it again.
you simply added to the server a second copy of everything already on the
server.

Get a duplicate remover. Start here:
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/mail_duplicates.asp

 

[Jeff]

Thanks Brian. I understood that much about Exchange, but what I thought I
was doing was avoiding the need to wait absolutely ages for 1Gb of data to
come down. I figured that if I imported it back in, then when the server
had a look, it would see that everything was already there... but that was
obviously a stupid notion.
Thanks for this, its appreciated.
Jeff