Outlook 2003 pst vs nk2 file

[Stacey Jansen]

I just reformated my hard drive and had saved off the pst files for our three
users to my external drive. I loaded the pst files for 2 of the users, but
the third file was not a pst, but an nk2. I don't have a pst saved off
anywhere for that user, just an nk2. And it's my wife's account...so I need
to fix the email soon!!! Somehow the pst got converted to an nk2 file. It's
700K+ big, but I can't seem to do anything with it. Could someone help me
figure out how to get all her email working again? Thanks!

 

[F. H. Muffman]

I just reformated my hard drive and had saved off the pst files for our
three
users to my external drive. I loaded the pst files for 2 of the users,
but
the third file was not a pst, but an nk2. I don't have a pst saved off
anywhere for that user, just an nk2. And it's my wife's account...so I
need
to fix the email soon!!! Somehow the pst got converted to an nk2 file.
It's
700K+ big, but I can't seem to do anything with it. Could someone help me
figure out how to get all her email working again? Thanks!

Well, it's very improbable that the file was 'converted' to an nk2 file.
There's no mechanism to actually do that anywhere. Maybe third party, but,
I don't know about that.

Have you tried renaming the file to pst? Do you know what directory it came
from? How did you move the file? Was it a PST file on the external drive,
or was it renamed there too? Did you check the external drive *before* you
reformatted?

I'm pretty sure there's no size limit on nk2 files, so even 700k is
possible.

 

[Stacey Jansen]

I tried renaming the extension from nk2 to pst and Outlook didn't recognize
it. I did a copy and paste from the correct outlook folder from the local
settings folder to my external hard drive. I did the same thing for two
other users. I do not remember the file being an nk2 on my c drive or
external drive. I didn't notice the nk2 extension until after I loaded
windows and office back on the c drive and tried to bring over the .pst from
the external drive. So, now I'm not sure if there was an nk2 on the external
hard drive the entire time. But, I don't remember an nk2 file on the c drive
that I was copying and pasting either. I see that the nk2 is supposed to be
a contact file, but I can't imagine why it would be that large.

I guess it's possible there was a pst and nk2 file in the folder and I
copied the wrong one, but I only remember seeing one outlook file in the
folder.

local settings/application data/microsoft/office

I guess I deleted the standard outlook.pst that office loaded when I
installed Outlook, and now I can't even get Outlook to open because there's
no standard pst. I guess I need help with that too.

Thanks!

 

[TimK]

I tried renaming the extension from nk2 to pst and Outlook didn't recognize
it. I did a copy and paste from the correct outlook folder from the local
settings folder to my external hard drive. I did the same thing for two
other users. I do not remember the file being an nk2 on my c drive or
external drive. I didn't notice the nk2 extension until after I loaded
windows and office back on the c drive and tried to bring over the .pst from
the external drive. So, now I'm not sure if there was an nk2 on the external
hard drive the entire time. But, I don't remember an nk2 file on the c drive
that I was copying and pasting either. I see that the nk2 is supposed to be
a contact file, but I can't imagine why it would be that large.

I guess it's possible there was a pst and nk2 file in the folder and I
copied the wrong one, but I only remember seeing one outlook file in the
folder.

local settings/application data/microsoft/office

I guess I deleted the standard outlook.pst that office loaded when I
installed Outlook, and now I can't even get Outlook to open because there's
no standard pst. I guess I need help with that too.

Thanks!

An N2K file is used by Outlook to store "Auto-Complete" entries. See
http://www.outlookexchange.com/Articles/JoyceTang/a7_nkedit.asp.

Regards,
Tim

Check out www.myGTDstuff.com for Outlook tips and tricks!

 

[F. H. Muffman]

I tried renaming the extension from nk2 to pst and Outlook didn't recognize
it. I did a copy and paste from the correct outlook folder from the local
settings folder to my external hard drive. I did the same thing for two
other users. I do not remember the file being an nk2 on my c drive or
external drive. I didn't notice the nk2 extension until after I loaded
windows and office back on the c drive and tried to bring over the .pst
from
the external drive. So, now I'm not sure if there was an nk2 on the
external
hard drive the entire time. But, I don't remember an nk2 file on the c
drive
that I was copying and pasting either. I see that the nk2 is supposed to
be
a contact file, but I can't imagine why it would be that large.

I guess it's possible there was a pst and nk2 file in the folder and I
copied the wrong one, but I only remember seeing one outlook file in the
folder.

local settings/application data/microsoft/office

I guess I deleted the standard outlook.pst that office loaded when I
installed Outlook, and now I can't even get Outlook to open because
there's
no standard pst. I guess I need help with that too.

The nk2 file isn't a contacts file, per se, it's really just the memory of
who you've sent to. Basically, when you type an address into the To field,
it populates that drop down list. A sufficiently old one could be that big,
I suppose.

And it coul easily have been the only Outlook file in that directory, since
you can really tell Outlook to put the PST file where ever you want.

As for the unopenable profile, just tgo to Control Panel - Mail, delete the
profile and create a new one. Probably the easiest solution to the missing
pst problem.

As for the original PST file on the HD you've reformatted, you're going to
be out of luck. Like I said, a PST doesn't 'become' a NK2 file. You might
want to search the external drive for *all* PST files, if you decided to
blanket copy Documents directories, since that's the other likely place I'd
expect to find it. Personally, I always created a PSTS directory and made
sure all the PSTs went there.

And actually, lets back up a moment. What type of mail server was the
missing PST file using?

 

[Stacey Jansen]

I guess I'm hosed then. I really thought I captured the .pst...but I must
not have for this one account. The one thing my wife said...make sure I
don't lose any of her emails (she had thousands). Oh well! We are using a
pop account and we download emails to the HD, don't leave it on the webserver.

I have set up a new account and downloaded her new email since the reformat,
but she has no history, contacts, etc.

Thanks for the help

 

[F. H. Muffman]

I guess I'm hosed then. I really thought I captured the .pst...but I must
not have for this one account. The one thing my wife said...make sure I
don't lose any of her emails (she had thousands). Oh well! We are using
a
pop account and we download emails to the HD, don't leave it on the
webserver.

I have set up a new account and downloaded her new email since the
reformat,
but she has no history, contacts, etc.

FWIW, I've been using this machine for about 3-4 months. My nk2 file is
almost 200k.

But yep, if there isn't a third pst file on your external drive, then there
isn't a third PST file.

 

[Craig S]

DnLoad Auto-backup Utility and save backup PST Folder external to computer
(CD-R, USB pen-drive). It will be there should you ever manually Save the
Folder and then err in using it for something.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...3a-b7d0-4b16-b8af-5a6322f4fd01&displaylang=en

 

[Brian Tillman]

I guess I'm hosed then. I really thought I captured the .pst...but I
must not have for this one account. The one thing my wife said...make
sure I don't lose any of her emails (she had thousands).

Now you know the value of a good backup scheme.

 

[F. H. Muffman]

Now you know the value of a good backup scheme.

And always verify the data you've moved off a system before deleting the
data from the original system.