Outlook 2003 backup utility stopped working

[kmewing]

For years I've used the little backup utility available from Microsoft's
support site (pfbackup.exe). Now, suddenly, it stopped working and I see no
way to jump start it. Here are the symptoms.

First, for normal operation I click File|Backup and then click the Save
Backup button in the dialog box. Then, when I close Outlook, the backup
starts.

Now, when I click File|Backup, I get the dialog box but the Save Backup
button is grayed out. If I click the Options button, the Options windows
says "No personal folders files are currently open." I see no way to select
any files to back up. Also, the destination field is blank and the Browse
button (to select a destination) is grayed out.

I've rebooted several times. I downloaded pfbackup.exe again from the
Microsoft support site and reinstalled it. I've changed nothing in my
Outlook configuration. I've been using this utility for years in exactly the
same way, so I can't figure out why is suddenly stopped working in the last
few days.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[Steve Smith]

I'm having the exact same problem. Has anyone come up with a solution?

 

[kmewing]

I never received any replies to this query. The backup utility is still
disabled on my computer. I've concluded that some automatice update to
Windows has rendered the utility inoperable (like a bug being accidentally
stepped on). I don't expect that fixing it will be a priority.

I did receive a reference to the following website:

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm

This site shows a manual method for backing up Outlook. It's not hard to
do. I've elected to use this method as a workaround.

 

[kmewing]

Another symptom may have shown up for me just today. When i invoked Outlook
I got an error message that said "Can't find backup.pst" or some such thing.
My backup utility has been inoperative for at least a month now but Outlook
has not squawked about finding an backup file until just today.

 

[kmewing]

One other annoyance: I don't see any way to remove the backup utility once
it is installed. If anyone can tell me how to remove it, please let me know.

 

[Brian Tillman]

One other annoyance: I don't see any way to remove the backup
utility once it is installed. If anyone can tell me how to remove
it, please let me know.

First, remove it from the "COM Add-Ins" dialogue within Outlook. Then
delete it from disk.