Recover notes from within a cancelled meeting

[jel]

This one is a little complex, despite being something simple that could
likely happen a lot.

In the free text area of the meeting window of a meeting that someone else
created, but I accepted, I wrote notes concerning the meeting so that I
wouldn't forget them for the meeting. The secretary who created the meeting
cancelled it and I thus no longer have my notes for the meeting, that will be
heald later. Is there any way to recover these notes? If I made an image of
my system before she cancelled the message, could I recover it from there or
are there files saved (archived) of old meetings?

I have the cancelled meeting in my deleted items folder, but I only see her
text giving the reason for the cancellation. Is it possible that she
overwrote my notes?

So that I may not repeat this error in the future, when I type in this area
of a meeting that I have not created, other than using OneNote, does this
store anywhere else that I can access in Outlook (I know, perhaps a redundant
question)?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

In the free text area of the meeting window of a meeting that someone else
created, but I accepted, I wrote notes concerning the meeting so that I
wouldn't forget them for the meeting. The secretary who created the meeting
cancelled it and I thus no longer have my notes for the meeting, that will
be
heald later. Is there any way to recover these notes? If I made an image
of
my system before she cancelled the message, could I recover it from there or
are there files saved (archived) of old meetings?

You may be able to recover it if you made a backup of your calendar prior to
the cancellation.

I have the cancelled meeting in my deleted items folder, but I only see her
text giving the reason for the cancellation. Is it possible that she
overwrote my notes?

Your event was overwritten by the update.

So that I may not repeat this error in the future, when I type in this area
of a meeting that I have not created, other than using OneNote, does this
store anywhere else that I can access in Outlook (I know, perhaps a
redundant
question)?

It's just stored in the event itself. You can always make a local copy of
your calendar and keep your notes there.

 

[jel]

Thanks, with my next question, I'm probably condemned to not recover my info,
but how to you backup your calendar? When Outlook does the auto archiving,
is this a part of it or is there something special you have to do yourself?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Thanks, with my next question, I'm probably condemned to not recover my
info,
but how to you backup your calendar? When Outlook does the auto archiving,
is this a part of it or is there something special you have to do yourself?

Autoarchiving is definitely not backing up, although if you need to recover an
item that is in the archive, it can act as a limited one. A real backup is an
exact copy of what's currently in the data store. In an Exchange environment,
your admins should be making backups. In other environments, the simplest way
is to make a copy of the data store while Outlook is closed. See this:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm

 

[jel]

Okay, I think I understand, but after going to the page your referenced, by
"data store" do you mean the "Outlook.pst" file and I assume that it includes
everything that's in your Outlook (including the calendar)?

As I mentioned in the first post, the only copy of anything Outlook that I
have BEFORE the meeting was cancelled is an image (.iso file) of my entire
system. So, if restored I assume I'd also have the old .pst; however, I am
figuring that restoring my image on another computer to retrieve this file
isn't worth the effort, but at least now I know I need to backup the .pst if
ever do this again.

Also, just to make doublely sure I know which .pst to backup, I assume it 's
the "Outlook.pst", since you said that the "archive.pst" doesn't have the
calendar info. (I actually do have a backup on my work server of the
archive.pst, but alas, not the Outllook.pst.)

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Okay, I think I understand, but after going to the page your referenced, by
"data store" do you mean the "Outlook.pst" file and I assume that it
includes
everything that's in your Outlook (including the calendar)?
Correct.

As I mentioned in the first post, the only copy of anything Outlook that I
have BEFORE the meeting was cancelled is an image (.iso file) of my entire
system. So, if restored I assume I'd also have the old .pst; however, I am
figuring that restoring my image on another computer to retrieve this file
isn't worth the effort, but at least now I know I need to backup the .pst if
ever do this again.

There are many free programs on the Internet that will allow you to mount an
ISO image as a read-only disk. Two of them are Alcohol 52% and Daemon Tools
Lite. Mount the ISO image and you'll be able to copy individual files (like
the older PST) to your hard drive without having to restore the entire disk
image.

Also, just to make doublely sure I know which .pst to backup, I assume it 's
the "Outlook.pst", since you said that the "archive.pst" doesn't have the
calendar info. (I actually do have a backup on my work server of the
archive.pst, but alas, not the Outllook.pst.)

Archive.pst may have your event, but it's unlikely. Outlook.pst is probably
the one you want. There's nothing magical about the name "outlook.pst",
however. You can name PSTs anything you want; that's just the default name
for some versions of Outlook.

 

[jel]

All I have to say is you definitely earned my "You da man!" award for the
week!

Thanks very, very much! I'm going to try to mount the .iso file and attempt
to recover the lost info via the outlook.pst. I definitely learned a lot and
the info on being able to mount the .iso and isolating just that file is
great news for another time when I may need to just restore a file or folder
versus the entire image.

And I understand about the name of the "outlook.pst" not being special, but
I wanted to make sure that was the one that the instructions in the link you
provide (a good resource) meant by "personal folder file".

Also, I downloaded and installed the MS addin for backing up the .pst's as
suggested on that site and am glad I'll have a regular way to keep up with
them automatically. Again, thanks!

 

[wangdong]

If you have any problems with pst file, you can try a tool called
Advanced Outlook Repair. You can download a free demo version at
http://www.datanumen.com/aor/aor.exe . I think it is a useful repair
tool for you. It is easy to recover your PST file by using its wizard.
It is a powerful tool to recover messages, folders and other objects
from corrupt or damaged Microsoft Outlook PST files.

Detailed information about Advanced Outlook Repair can be found at
http://www.datanumen.com/aor/

Wangdong