OL2003: Opening a .OST file offline without connection to Exchange

[Ruxpin]

I recently left my company who was using an exchange server. I had an active
..OST file using Outlook 2003 and "accidentally" removed the Exchange Server
connection. All of my Calendar, Contacts, address book, and DRAFT emails were
stored in my OST which I can no longer connect to.

Is there a way to recover or convert my .OST Outlook file offline without
being able to reconnect to the Exchange Server email account? From reading
the KB, it doesn't look like there is a Microsoft way, but could be a 3rd
party app that converts my data to a .PST or allows me to open the .OST so I
can recover all my active Outlook data.

Thanks
Ruxpin

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

Actually, you don't need a third party application. What you need is access
to an Exchange server. What you do is create a new outlook 2003 profile
with a new OST to any Exchange mailbox. Start Outlook and get a good
syncronization. Shutdown Outlook and then disable your network connection.
Replace the new OST with a copy of the OST you need to get at. Start
Outlook (should come up offline since there is no network). Export to PST
and shutdown Outlook. At this point you can create a new profile with the
PST and make sure you have the desired results.

FWIW, I don't know of any 3rd party utilities that can handle the new
unicode structure.