PFBackup - Change in backup location problem

[Buck Wheat]

I've been using Outlook Backup (pfbackup) without issue for some time,
however since the original .pst is located on my C:\ drive I backed up the
file to another disk. (E:\) Recently I swapped out two disks for one large
one and this 'broke' the pfbackup setting for where to backup the file. I
changed the location from the E:\ drive to the D:\ drive in the Options,
however I keep getting error messages when I try to backup saying that it
cannot find the E:\ file location. In other words it is not recognizing that
I've changed the location of where to save the file. I assumed that this
location was saved in the registry and have searched (and found) a location
that this was kept and have changed it, but it contines to error out. I've
searched again, didn't find anything; uninstalled and reinstalled the add-in,
even searched all hard drives for a reference in any file that listed the
specific E:\ drive location and haven't found anything. I've looked on the
Internet and have not seen this issue described anywhere. Any ideas?

 

[Frank B Smith]

I did a search of my registry, but did not locate the key that had this
info. Can you point me in the right direction.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

What I found was that the backup location is saved not in the registry but in hidden properties in the .pst file itself. You need to use a tool like Outlook Spy or MAPI Editor (formerly MFCMAPI) to see them.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Buck Wheat]

The only place that I found which listed the location of the pst file used in
the original pfbackup setting was found in the registry at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\OpenSaveMRU\pst.
I had no idea whether this was actually used by pfbackup but I did know that
the original location (the E:\ location) was no longer available and by
changing it to D:\ I was only pointing it to its actual location after the
hard drive swapped, so I felt confortable changing this. I read Sue's
suggestion to use the utility to look within the PST file but I've not done
so yet.

 

[Buck Wheat]

Sue,

I've downloaded Outlook Spy and have installed it. I must admit that I'm
surprised at the dizzyingly varied array of settings and information that
this will provide access to. I was hoping that you could assist in pointing
out where I should be looking to access the pfbackup location. I’ve searched
and have only found one place that seems to have this information; IMsgStore
| GetProps tab | Property Tag = 0x82E7 (|ID=0X0000), Type=PT_STRING8,
Value=D:\Outlook backup\Outlook backup.pst and as you can see, the value
stored is the D:\ drive and therefore pointed to the new location. I did note
that this property as well as another one, Property Tag = 0x82E8
(|ID=0X0001), Type=PT_BOOLEAN, Value=true both had the property tag in bold
letters and that these are the only two properties that I’ve seen that are in
bold letters. Would this possibly show a corrupted property? Can these
properties be deleted and added again without causing damage? Do you know of
anywhere else I should look that may still have the E:\ drive listed? I still
am not able to successfully backup the .pst file since it errors out saying
that E:\ does not refer to a valid location.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

You now know as muct as I do. Since it's already broken, it might not hurt to delete the property and see what happens, but you might want to try that first on another profile using a text .pst file.

Bold properties are so-called "named properties." That has no bearing on your issue.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers