Migrating Outlook 2003 PST to a New Laptop Running Outlook 2007

[Mr. Jackson]

Good morning,

This post is for those who purchased a new laptop and installed Office 2007.
The objective was to see if I could copy an Outlook 2003 PST file from an
old laptop to the proper folder location on a new laptop that had Outlook
2007 installed. The test was successful.

If there was an easier way to migrate between laptops and Office versions,
please post it.

Assumptions:
1) Administrative access to the laptop.
2) View file extensions.
3) Access to all folders.
4) POP3 email account with ISP (No Exchange Server connections).

1) Shut down Outlook on the laptop running Outlook 2003.
2) Search for the Outlook.pst file and note the folder.
3) Copy all files to a staging folder or DVD.
4) Install Office 2007 to the new laptop (all features except InfoPath).
5) Create the email account. Leave messages on the server.
6) Connect to email account and download emails.
7) Shut down Outlook 2007.
8) Search for the Outlook.pst file and note the folder.
9) Add a 'bak' extension to all files in the folder.
10) Copy all the files from Outlook 2003 to the folder for Outlook 2007.
11) Start Outlook 2007.
12) Confirm emails, appointments, rules, etc.

I've tested Office 2007 on company test laptops successfully. Two people
had their laptops fail in the field. I purchased new laptops and decided to
test Office 2007 in the field. I migrated the two users from Office 2003 to
Office 2007. After five days, no problems with Outlook.

Thanks.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Definitely not the correct procedure. It is, however, a very good recipe for
corrupting your profile.
As with every other version of Outlook, you change PST files only within
Outlook while it is running. Method is well documented in Help files and has
not changed in Outlook 2007. It is also not a good idea to copy a PST file
into the default folder because of the likelihood of overwriting another PST
file.
The correct method is simply to open the PST file to which you want to
change, set it as the default, close and restart Outlook, then close the
original PST file Outlook created when the profile was created.

 

[Mr. Jackson]

Thanks for the information, especially about the possibilities of file
corruption.

While I could not find the specific help file information relating to the
topic of migrating to an upgraded version of Outlook, I did find the help
file information on 'File-Open-Open a file' useful.

Thanks again for the info, I will use it on my next test case.

Definitely not the correct procedure. It is, however, a very good recipe for
corrupting your profile.
As with every other version of Outlook, you change PST files only within
Outlook while it is running. Method is well documented in Help files and has
not changed in Outlook 2007. It is also not a good idea to copy a PST file
into the default folder because of the likelihood of overwriting another PST
file.
The correct method is simply to open the PST file to which you want to
change, set it as the default, close and restart Outlook, then close the
original PST file Outlook created when the profile was created.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Good morning,

This post is for those who purchased a new laptop and installed Office
2007.
The objective was to see if I could copy an Outlook 2003 PST file from an
old laptop to the proper folder location on a new laptop that had Outlook
2007 installed. The test was successful.

If there was an easier way to migrate between laptops and Office versions,
please post it.

Assumptions:
1) Administrative access to the laptop.
2) View file extensions.
3) Access to all folders.
4) POP3 email account with ISP (No Exchange Server connections).

1) Shut down Outlook on the laptop running Outlook 2003.
2) Search for the Outlook.pst file and note the folder.
3) Copy all files to a staging folder or DVD.
4) Install Office 2007 to the new laptop (all features except InfoPath).
5) Create the email account. Leave messages on the server.
6) Connect to email account and download emails.
7) Shut down Outlook 2007.
8) Search for the Outlook.pst file and note the folder.
9) Add a 'bak' extension to all files in the folder.
10) Copy all the files from Outlook 2003 to the folder for Outlook 2007.
11) Start Outlook 2007.
12) Confirm emails, appointments, rules, etc.

I've tested Office 2007 on company test laptops successfully. Two people
had their laptops fail in the field. I purchased new laptops and decided
to
test Office 2007 in the field. I migrated the two users from Office 2003
to
Office 2007. After five days, no problems with Outlook.

Thanks.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Please do.
PST file migration has become one of Outlook's weakest links. It gets more
problematic all the time.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Thanks for the information, especially about the possibilities of file
corruption.

While I could not find the specific help file information relating to the
topic of migrating to an upgraded version of Outlook, I did find the help
file information on 'File-Open-Open a file' useful.

Thanks again for the info, I will use it on my next test case.

Definitely not the correct procedure. It is, however, a very good recipe
for
corrupting your profile.
As with every other version of Outlook, you change PST files only within
Outlook while it is running. Method is well documented in Help files and
has
not changed in Outlook 2007. It is also not a good idea to copy a PST
file
into the default folder because of the likelihood of overwriting another
PST
file.
The correct method is simply to open the PST file to which you want to
change, set it as the default, close and restart Outlook, then close the
original PST file Outlook created when the profile was created.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Good morning,

This post is for those who purchased a new laptop and installed Office
2007.
The objective was to see if I could copy an Outlook 2003 PST file from
an
old laptop to the proper folder location on a new laptop that had
Outlook
2007 installed. The test was successful.

If there was an easier way to migrate between laptops and Office
versions,
please post it.

Assumptions:
1) Administrative access to the laptop.
2) View file extensions.
3) Access to all folders.
4) POP3 email account with ISP (No Exchange Server connections).

1) Shut down Outlook on the laptop running Outlook 2003.
2) Search for the Outlook.pst file and note the folder.
3) Copy all files to a staging folder or DVD.
4) Install Office 2007 to the new laptop (all features except
InfoPath).
5) Create the email account. Leave messages on the server.
6) Connect to email account and download emails.
7) Shut down Outlook 2007.
8) Search for the Outlook.pst file and note the folder.
9) Add a 'bak' extension to all files in the folder.
10) Copy all the files from Outlook 2003 to the folder for Outlook
2007.
11) Start Outlook 2007.
12) Confirm emails, appointments, rules, etc.

I've tested Office 2007 on company test laptops successfully. Two
people
had their laptops fail in the field. I purchased new laptops and
decided
to
test Office 2007 in the field. I migrated the two users from Office
2003
to
Office 2007. After five days, no problems with Outlook.

Thanks.