New installation of Outlook 2007

[real1]

My hard drive is about to fail and I will be reinstalling Windows XP Pro and
Outlook 2007 on the new drive. Once I install Outlook 2007, I will place the
PST file on that drive and ask Outlook to open it. Will it automatically put
everything the way I had it before? (mailbox folders, rules, contacts, email
accounts, etc) The pst file is quite large 2.7 Gb! I'm not sure how it got
that large. I would hate to have to redo all my email rules and mailboxes.
Any help would be appreciated. Oh, and what about the activation on this new
drive?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

My hard drive is about to fail and I will be reinstalling Windows XP Pro
and
Outlook 2007 on the new drive. Once I install Outlook 2007, I will place
the
PST file on that drive and ask Outlook to open it. Will it automatically
put
everything the way I had it before? (mailbox folders, rules, contacts,
email
accounts, etc)

No. First, email account data is not kept in the PST, but in the registry,
so the reinstalling of WIndows will wipe that out. You can save the mail
profile by exporting it from the registry, but that won't work fully,
either. Passwords cannot be retained that way. It's best to start with a
clean profile and re-add the accounts manually. Second, rules may not work.
It's best if you export them with the Rules Wizard and then reimport them
after you've created the new profile. Third, if you want Outlook to open
with the old data as the default data, it's easiest if you do this in the
mail profile before opening Outlook. If you do it after Outlook has been
configured after the initial install, you'll need to add the data file
manually, make it the delivery location, stop and restart Outlook, and
remove the empty PST the install will have created.

 

[real1]

Brian,

Thanks for your response. I am however looking for more detailed help
in this matter. I will be cloning my current C:\ drive to a back up drive, so
Outlook will be on there. The rules I can export, but does the pst file
contain
all of my mailbox folders with the mail in them? I'm not quite sure what you
mean
by data either. Sorry for being a little slow, but this does not seem like
it is an easy task.

Thanks again,

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Thanks for your response. I am however looking for more detailed help
in this matter. I will be cloning my current C:\ drive to a back up drive,
so
Outlook will be on there. The rules I can export, but does the pst file
contain
all of my mailbox folders with the mail in them?

Yes. All your Outlook data (mail, contacts, calendar, etc.) is kept in that
same file. You should consider making a separate backup of that data.
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm