Need to reinstall Win XP

[embee]

Hi,
I'm planning to reinstall Windows XP Home on my system as there are
currently too many conflicts and speed problems. The last time I did this I
seem to remember that I misunderstood the procedure I should follow to make
backups of all my Microsoft Outlook data - and so I ended up losing all my
appointments, reminders, tasks - and many, many important emails.

So, instead of making the same mistake again I was wondering if people here
would be able to offer me advice on making sure I (a) save all my Outlook
data and (b) successfully import it into Outlook again when the reinstall is
complete.

I'm running Office XP on Windows XP Home SP2.

Many thanks for any help.

 

[CompleteNewb]

embee:

As you may know, ALL advice offered by respondants to your post are subject
to infinite shortcomings, lack of knowledge regarding your specific setup,
etc. So nothing is guaranteed. For the following, I'm assuming that your
ONLY concern is saving stuff that you see in Outlook.

If I understand your issue correctly, and the versions of Office, Windows,
etc. that you are using, then:

Outlook, in most standardized installs and uses (ie. no custom VBA or
vbscript mods and add-ins, no multiple users with different profiles, etc.),
stores everything (emails, appointments, calendar, etc.) in one file, called
Outlook.pst. If ou have Windows Explorer set to show hidden and system
files, this file is located in the C:\Documents and Settings\[your user
name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\ folder.

In that folder, you should see a file named Outlook.pst.

If you save this file to a CD, external harddrive, etc., then after the new
install (not only of Windows, but also the same version of Office/Outllook),
you should be able to start the fresh install of Outlook and use its
File-->Import/Export-->From an External File/Program-->Personal Folder
(.pst) to navigate to your saved Outlook.pst and choose to import
everything.

This is what I have done in the past, and it worked, but I have run into
complications (ie. my new version of Outlook was not the same as the old
version of Outlook, or the fresh install hated the fact that my import was
named the same as the default new Outlook.pst, etc. Plus, I've seen several
posts about how using File-->Import as opposed to pointing Outlook to the
right .pst can cause problems, etc. Too much to cover in one post, really.
The important thing is to save the old .pst you have somewhere externally
before the re-install, so you have the backup to work with. Since I've seen
100's of problems with imports/exports regarding Outlook, I'd suggest using
a copy of the copy while doing things like importing or pointing Outlook to
the old .pst after the new install. If you keep a copy of the old
Outlook.pst untouched, you should be able to overcome all the trials and
tribulations. Regardless of the complications, which you can address with
further posts, you should be good as long as you save the old Outlook.pst
somewhere EXTERNALLY before the fresh install.

Again, this is assuming you've done nothing with Outlook and Windows from
default installs, like setting up individual profiles for different Outlook
accounts, etc.

This is a response from a Complete Newb, but one who has run into similar
problems.

 

[embee]

embee:

As you may know, ALL advice offered by respondants to your post are
subject to infinite shortcomings, lack of knowledge regarding your
specific setup, etc. So nothing is guaranteed. For the following, I'm
assuming that your ONLY concern is saving stuff that you see in Outlook.

If I understand your issue correctly, and the versions of Office, Windows,
etc. that you are using, then:

Outlook, in most standardized installs and uses (ie. no custom VBA or
vbscript mods and add-ins, no multiple users with different profiles,
etc.), stores everything (emails, appointments, calendar, etc.) in one
file, called Outlook.pst. If ou have Windows Explorer set to show hidden
and system files, this file is located in the C:\Documents and
Settings\[your user name]\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\ folder.

In that folder, you should see a file named Outlook.pst.

If you save this file to a CD, external harddrive, etc., then after the
new install (not only of Windows, but also the same version of
Office/Outllook), you should be able to start the fresh install of Outlook
and use its File-->Import/Export-->From an External
File/Program-->Personal Folder (.pst) to navigate to your saved
Outlook.pst and choose to import everything.

This is what I have done in the past, and it worked, but I have run into
complications (ie. my new version of Outlook was not the same as the old
version of Outlook, or the fresh install hated the fact that my import was
named the same as the default new Outlook.pst, etc. Plus, I've seen
several posts about how using File-->Import as opposed to pointing Outlook
to the right .pst can cause problems, etc. Too much to cover in one post,
really. The important thing is to save the old .pst you have somewhere
externally before the re-install, so you have the backup to work with.
Since I've seen 100's of problems with imports/exports regarding Outlook,
I'd suggest using a copy of the copy while doing things like importing or
pointing Outlook to the old .pst after the new install. If you keep a
copy of the old Outlook.pst untouched, you should be able to overcome all
the trials and tribulations. Regardless of the complications, which you
can address with further posts, you should be good as long as you save the
old Outlook.pst somewhere EXTERNALLY before the fresh install.

Again, this is assuming you've done nothing with Outlook and Windows from
default installs, like setting up individual profiles for different
Outlook accounts, etc.

This is a response from a Complete Newb, but one who has run into similar
problems.

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to write such a comprehensive reply. It's
much appreciated. From what you've said, I have followed the correct
procedure in the past (I seem to remember something about a .pst file!) but
my problems came when I tried to import that file back into Outlook after
the reinstall. I can't exactly remember the problem - but it didn't work
:-( Maybe I just got unlucky - I didn't have a new version of Outlook and I
wasn't setting up individual accounts or anything like that.

Well, I will go ahead with my reinstall and keep my fingers crossed.... It's
amazing that Microsoft hasn't integrated a foolproof (me being the fool I
guess!) procedure for this - given that both Outlook and Windows are
Microsoft products. Ho hum.

Thanks again.

 

[Pat Willener]

There is a perfectly foolproof method provided by Microsoft: the File
and Settings Transfer Wizard. Basically this transfers all your files
and settings to a new computer, but this can be used as well in your
situation - transfer the data to the old computer with the newly
installed OS.

Once you have your PST file back on the reinstalled Windows, *do* *not*
use the Import function, but directly open the PST file from Outlook. If
you saved the PST file on a CD-ROM, make sure that your remove the
read-only attribute before attempting to open the file.