New Computer, Old Hard Drive

[LouInMN]

Hi all! thanks for your assistance in this matter.

the motherboard on my sister-in-law's computer died so she got a new one. i
pulled her hard drive out of her old box and put it into the second box as a
second hard drive (F

anyway, she installed MS Office XP onto the new computer fine but
(naturally) her Contacts and Calendar are empty, not to mention any emails
she had in any folders.

is there a means to acquire the Contacts and/or Calendar and/or Emails from
the previous hard drive (F to work with the Outlook installed on her
current main hard drive (C ?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

The file you need is your Personal Folders file (*.pst) It's where all the
mail, calendar, contacts etc are stored.

Take a look at these pages for info on Outlook data backup or transfer:
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
http://www.howto-outlook.com/Howto/backupandrestore.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx

 

[LouInMN]

Thanks Russ!
worked like a charm. at first she couldn't find any *.pst files on her old
hard drive. luckily she hadn't emptied her Recycle Bin yet as she had dumped
her 'Documents and Settings' Folder (from the old hard drive) thinking she
wouldn't need it anymore. Once that folder was restored, she was able to
locate the right files and get them imported into the MS Outlook installed on
her current C: drive.

The file you need is your Personal Folders file (*.pst) It's where all the
mail, calendar, contacts etc are stored.

Take a look at these pages for info on Outlook data backup or transfer:
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
http://www.howto-outlook.com/Howto/backupandrestore.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Hi all! thanks for your assistance in this matter.

the motherboard on my sister-in-law's computer died so she got a new one.
i
pulled her hard drive out of her old box and put it into the second box as
a
second hard drive (F

anyway, she installed MS Office XP onto the new computer fine but
(naturally) her Contacts and Calendar are empty, not to mention any emails
she had in any folders.

is there a means to acquire the Contacts and/or Calendar and/or Emails
from
the previous hard drive (F to work with the Outlook installed on her
current main hard drive (C ?

 

[BuckyB]

Hi all! thanks for your assistance in this matter.

the motherboard on my sister-in-law's computer died so she got a new one. i
pulled her hard drive out of her old box and put it into the second box as a
second hard drive (F

anyway, she installed MS Office XP onto the new computer fine but
(naturally) her Contacts and Calendar are empty, not to mention any emails
she had in any folders.

is there a means to acquire the Contacts and/or Calendar and/or Emails from
the previous hard drive (F to work with the Outlook installed on her
current main hard drive (C ?

 

[BuckyB]

I have exactly the same problem, but can find no "local settings" folder.
Even using DOS and going thru the file tree I can only find "Desktop,
Favorites, My Documents, Start Menu, and Windows" listed in my name directory
under Documents and Settings on the F: drive. I can't find it on my C: drive
either. I'm using Vista and my old Office 2003 on the new laptop, and was
using XP and the same Office on the old one. Can you help me get my address
book and email files back? Thanks.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have exactly the same problem, but can find no "local settings"
folder.

Because it's a hidden folder. Use Folder Options' View settings to enable
viewing hidden files and folders.

Even using DOS and going thru the file tree I can only find
"Desktop, Favorites, My Documents, Start Menu, and Windows" listed in
my name directory under Documents and Settings on the F: drive. I
can't find it on my C: drive either. I'm using Vista and my old
Office 2003 on the new laptop, and was using XP and the same Office
on the old one. Can you help me get my address book and email files
back? Thanks.

The problem here is that even if you do find it, you may not be able to
access it in your old WIndows profile folder tree because of protections in
effect, unless you take ownership of the files.

 

[BuckyB]

Thanks. I was able to get my old .pst files back, but it looks like I have
to overwrite my current files when I copy in the old ones. Is there a way to
concatenate files in Vista?

Also, I still can't find any .pab files. When I renamed my outlook.pst to
disable it and copied in my old outlook.pst all of the new addresses I had
set up disappeared and the address book is now empty.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks. I was able to get my old .pst files back, but it looks like
I have to overwrite my current files when I copy in the old ones. Is
there a way to concatenate files in Vista?

Of course you don't have to overwrite the old ones. Just copy the PST to
some folder (any folder), making sure you DON'T overwrite an existing PST
and then in Outlook, click File>Open>Outlook Data File. Browse to it,
select it, and click OK.

Also, I still can't find any .pab files. When I renamed my
outlook.pst to disable it and copied in my old outlook.pst all of the
new addresses I had set up disappeared and the address book is now
empty.

PABs haven't been used in years. Your contacts are in the Contacts folder
of your PST. What did you rename and why?

 

[BuckyB]

Thanks, Brian. I renamed the new Outlook.pst "Outlook3" in order to disable
it and still go back to it easily if things didn't work out. I then copied
in the outlook.pst from my old hard drive. Now I have all of my old emails,
but not the most recent ones from the new Outlook.pst which I renamed, plus
my contacts folder seems to work fine, but my address book is completely
disabled. It appears empty and won't accept new entries. Should I just undo
what I had done with the renaming, copying etc. and follow your advice to
"Just copy the PST to

some folder (any folder), making sure you DON'T overwrite an existing PST
and then in Outlook, click File>Open>Outlook Data File. Browse to it,
select it, and click OK."?

I thought I'd best wait for your response before screwing something else up.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks, Brian. I renamed the new Outlook.pst "Outlook3" in order to
disable it and still go back to it easily if things didn't work out.
I then copied in the outlook.pst from my old hard drive.

Never overwrite a PST. You'll nearly always corrupt your mail profile.

Now I have
all of my old emails, but not the most recent ones from the new
Outlook.pst which I renamed, plus my contacts folder seems to work
fine, but my address book is completely disabled. It appears empty
and won't accept new entries.

This is a side-effect of the incorrect approach to migrating the old data.
See this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287563/en-us

Should I just undo what I had done
with the renaming, copying etc. and follow your advice to "Just copy
the PST to

I thought I'd best wait for your response before screwing something
else up.

Were I you, I'd leave things as they are, but start with a new mail profile.
That should fix all the problems at one time. See
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm

 

[BuckyB]

Brian, thanks so much for all of your help. I ended up reverting my system
to where it was before I started to mess w it, then using Outlook's .pst file
import/export function. It all seems to work fine now.

If it weren't for those like you who know all this stuff and are willing to
share, half the computers in the world would be nothing more than expensive
paperweights.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Brian, thanks so much for all of your help. I ended up reverting my
system to where it was before I started to mess w it, then using
Outlook's .pst file import/export function.

Never export to or import from a PST. You lose data and can corrupt your
mail profile.