Provide means to export Email Accounts and Rules from Outlook 2003

[Mike Brown]

I have around 100 Email accounts within my Outlook 2003 program. Recently I
began experiencing a hard drive problem and exported all of my folders to a
..pst file. I assumed I was copying everything from my Outlook database to
this file because there was nothing to suggest I wasn't. After setting up a
new computer I went to import this .pst file which was several gigabytes in
size. The only items it imported were the email folders. All of my Email
accounts had to be reentered from scratch! This cost us several hours of
downtime and numerous customer service problems. I also exported the "Rules"
but upon importing them the Outlook 2003 program said I did not have a
unicode format or something so they would not be activated. There should be a
button somewhere that clearly says this will backup 100 percent of all of
your data. Imagine our surprise when it was far short of this goal. I will
continue using Outlook till the next version comes out but if this option
isn't installed than I can't find a good reason to keep using the product.
It's just too risky a venture for us because we have a business to run and
downtime is time you are not making money which is all we want to do at the
end of the day.

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[Pat Garard]

G'Day Mike,

You've had a really $hitty Day!

1. There is a great deal of difference between Export and
Backup.

2. If you enter "File Locations" into the "Type a question for help"
box, and Click on the Top Item in the Search Results ("Outlook
File Locations") you will see a list of 17 types of Outlook 2003
Files, and their Locations - You can now make arrangements
to have them backed up using your favourite Backup Utility.

3. If you type "Backup" into the same box, you will see several
articles on backing up parts of Outlook. One of the articles
refers to ...

4. http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/assistance/HA010875321033.aspx
and describes the Personal Folders (PST) backup tool.
You can download this tool from...
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...3A-B7D0-4B16-B8AF-5A6322F4FD01&displaylang=en
...and when Installed, it allows you to perform Scheduled backups
of the PST file from within Outlook (It's an AddIn for Outlook).

5. Information on Accounts is stored in a Mail Profile. This is NOT
a file, but a set of entries in the Windows Registry. For that
reason
it is DIRECTLY controlled by the Mail applet in Control Panel.
Some would argue that it is therefore not part of Outlook.
However, see...
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/assistance/HA011471581033.aspx
for a description of Profiles. To 'back up' a Profile (or
Profiles),
you would need to back up portions of the Windows Registry.....

....I guess it aint real simple!

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have around 100 Email accounts within my Outlook 2003 program.
Recently I began experiencing a hard drive problem and exported all
of my folders to a .pst file.

Since they were already in a PST, most likely, this was a waste of time.

I assumed I was copying everything from
my Outlook database to this file because there was nothing to suggest
I wasn't.

You copied all your Outlook data, yes. You didn't copy your mail profile,
though, since that's kept in the registry. The Save My Settings wizard
could have been used to save that information. You also didn't copy your
autocompletion cache, since that's not kept in the PST

I also exported the "Rules" but upon
importing them the Outlook 2003 program said I did not have a unicode
format or something so they would not be activated.

Rules are kept in the PST as well, so simply copying your existing PST would
have retained all yor rules.

There should be a
button somewhere that clearly says this will backup 100 percent of
all of your data.

Export is NEVER the way to save Outlook data. See this:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm