Importing Outlook.pst into existing outlook.pst

[Mike]

Hi,
I have a PC with a hard drive crash. I called HP and they determined that I
needed a new hard drive. I got the new drive and reinstalled XP and Office
2003 and created a new outlook.pst and started downloading mail.
I have since been able to recover the old outlook.pst file from the crashed
hard drive and would like to import it into the "new" outlook, since it has
contacts and older mail the user would like to have.
Is this as simple as doing an import and pointing to the outlook.pst file
that I have recovered, or are there more steps involved, or a better way to
do this?
Thanks for any help!

Mike

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Hi,
I have a PC with a hard drive crash. I called HP and they determined
that I needed a new hard drive. I got the new drive and reinstalled
XP and Office 2003 and created a new outlook.pst and started
downloading mail.
I have since been able to recover the old outlook.pst file from the
crashed hard drive and would like to import it into the "new"
outlook, since it has contacts and older mail the user would like to
have.
Is this as simple as doing an import and pointing to the outlook.pst
file that I have recovered, or are there more steps involved, or a
better way to do this?
Thanks for any help!

Mike

Don't import. Open the file in your mail profile (file | open | outlook data
file) and then, when it's open, select what you wish from the folders
therein, and copy it to the appropriate folders in your "real" PST file.

 

[Mike]

Cool!

Thanks so much!

In

Don't import. Open the file in your mail profile (file | open | outlook data
file) and then, when it's open, select what you wish from the folders
therein, and copy it to the appropriate folders in your "real" PST file.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Cool!

Thanks so much!

You're most welcome

Another option - if you have only a teeny bit of data in the newly created
PST file, you could:

Open Outlook
Open the old PST file (which you will have put in the directory of your
choice! You can even use my documents\outlook or something easier to find
than the profile path folder) using file | open
Right-click on the top-level folder for that PST file, properties, advanced,
and change the display name to something logical, such as your name
In Tools | email accounts | view/modify - change the delivery location to
the 'old' PST file (the name should be clear enough)
Close & reopen Outlook
Copy from the *other* PST file to your *real* PST file.
When done, right-click on the newly old PST (!) and close it

This will save you time & effort, I think - and you'll know where your PST
file is.

 

[jehubb]

i have a problem similar to Mike's. i backed up my hard drive using windows
backup but do not have separate email back up. i did clean install of windows
xp and set up new email account. i restored my old email pst file to
alternate locatioin on my original hard drive and now when i try to open it
from outlook using file command i get message access denied.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Make sure the file isn't marked as Read Only.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003