Restoring Outlook 2003 files

[Richard]

The hard drive on my wife's computer crashed the other day. However, I
backed up her outlook files the previous week to an external HD. I
reinstalled Office Pro 2003 on her computer. I copied the following files
from the external HD back onto the Outlook folder under Bett\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook:

outcmd.dat
outlook.xml
outlook.nk2
outlook.srs
outlprnt
There was no .pst file

When I started up Outlook for the first time, none of the backup information
showed up. So, I open Contacts, created one contact. Still none of the
other contact showed. When I checked the Outlook folder, a outlook.pst file
had been created. But none of the backup information showed up in outlook.
So, I deleted the outlook.pst file. When I tried to start outlook again, I
got an error message saying it couldn't find the outlook.pst file (I had
deleted it).

I decided to start all over. I uninstall Office Pro 2003, reinstalled it,
booted Outlook and got the same message that the outlook.pst file could not
be found. I'm guessing there is some statement in the Registry causing the
message to pop up.

How do I correct the problem with the outlook.pst file and how do I get the
new install outlook 2003 to recognize the restored files?

Thank you.

 

[Gordon]

The hard drive on my wife's computer crashed the other day. However, I
backed up her outlook files the previous week to an external HD. I
reinstalled Office Pro 2003 on her computer. I copied the following files
from the external HD back onto the Outlook folder under Bett\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook:

outcmd.dat
outlook.xml
outlook.nk2
outlook.srs
outlprnt
There was no .pst file

When I started up Outlook for the first time, none of the backup
information
showed up. So, I open Contacts, created one contact. Still none of the
other contact showed. When I checked the Outlook folder, a outlook.pst
file
had been created. But none of the backup information showed up in
outlook.
So, I deleted the outlook.pst file. When I tried to start outlook again,
I
got an error message saying it couldn't find the outlook.pst file (I had
deleted it).

I decided to start all over. I uninstall Office Pro 2003, reinstalled it,
booted Outlook and got the same message that the outlook.pst file could
not
be found. I'm guessing there is some statement in the Registry causing
the
message to pop up.

How do I correct the problem with the outlook.pst file and how do I get
the
new install outlook 2003 to recognize the restored files?

Thank you.

All your data is held in the pst file. If there is no pst file, then you
didn't back it up.

 

[Brian Tillman]

The hard drive on my wife's computer crashed the other day. However,
I backed up her outlook files the previous week to an external HD. I
reinstalled Office Pro 2003 on her computer. I copied the following
files from the external HD back onto the Outlook folder under
Bett\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook:

outcmd.dat
outlook.xml
outlook.nk2
outlook.srs
outlprnt
There was no .pst file

The PST file would have been under Bett\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook, most likely. The only file of those above that
would not regenerate automatically is the NK2 file and you must name it to
match the mail profile you created no the new machine.

I decided to start all over. I uninstall Office Pro 2003,
reinstalled it, booted Outlook and got the same message that the
outlook.pst file could not be found. I'm guessing there is some
statement in the Registry causing the message to pop up.

The mail profile is trying to reference a PST you deleted. Naturally it
will complain about that. Outlook doesn't "go looking" for PSTs. You must
explicitly add a reference to the PST you want to use.

How do I correct the problem with the outlook.pst file and how do I
get the new install outlook 2003 to recognize the restored files?

None of the files you restored (except for, perhaps, the NK2 file) will help
you. If you didn't save the old PST, you're out of luck.