Run Outlook 2003 on an external drive?

[Janet]

After much research, I am more confused than ever.

I use Outlook 2003 to manage my entire life. And I sync it to my PDA so
that I can take my life with me. It really works for me and I want to stay
with it if possible. I have a memory impairment (with my brain...not the
computer lol), so this sytems has literally changed my life.

For instance, when I'm researching something online, talking on the phone to
a customer service rep, or making an appointment for one of my kids, I log
everything into Notes on Outlook. It makes it super simple to do a search to
find that stuff later.

I also use Outlook to email myself anything that I need to document and
access later such as product orders, or remodeling ideas etc. And I also
email information to Outlook from my Treo when I'm out and I see something I
want to keep track of, such as the price of a home for sale with the address,
contact info, and notes about its appearance etc. Or while at a doctors
appointment, I'll email myself the doctors prescription directions etc so I
can have them in my system 2 months later when I forget everything she told
me at my appointment. Or I'll be watching something on TV, and I'll learn
something about saving money in taxes etc, so I'll email that to myself for
later when I'm doing my taxes. I put very descriptive information in the
subject line of every email so that I can search for it easily with just the
subject.

I don't sync my email with the Treo because I don't really need it as I know
I can search for it later on Outlook. But I sync everything else, Contacts,
Notes, etc.

I need to find a way to protect my data, WITHOUT slowing my computer down to
a crawl (that's when it can crawl at all) and without the constant hangs I'm
having now.

If I were to run Outlook on an external drive, would I be able to use it the
same way that I use it now on my local hard drive?

How can I use Outlook and have immediate access to everything on it without
taking up all my disk space or slowing down my laptop?

If I archive my Outlook data, will it still be immediately accessible and
searchable? It wouldn't make sense for me to have to import data back into
Outlook - that would defeat the whole purpose of my system.

I do have an online storage subscription with about 5 gigs, but because I'm
on a wireless network I sometimes loss all connectivity for hours at a time -
ususally when I need it most.

I can spend up to $500 to get this accomplished. Anymore than that and it
might be more worthwhile to just get a new laptop (mine is about 3.5 years
old).

Thank you so much!

 

[Brian Tillman]

If I were to run Outlook on an external drive, would I be able to use
it the same way that I use it now on my local hard drive?

While you may be able to install the Outlook program itself on an external
drive, you could not then take that drive to another machine and expect it
to work. Some of Outlook's support environment is installed on the C drive
and you can't change that.

How can I use Outlook and have immediate access to everything on it
without taking up all my disk space or slowing down my laptop?

You can certainly keep your Outlook delivery location on an external drive
or memory stick. I certainly don't think it will improve speed, though.

If I archive my Outlook data, will it still be immediately accessible
and searchable? It wouldn't make sense for me to have to import data
back into Outlook - that would defeat the whole purpose of my system.

Accessing and archive is as simple as File>Open>Outlook Data File. No
importing needed.

I do have an online storage subscription with about 5 gigs, but
because I'm on a wireless network I sometimes loss all connectivity
for hours at a time - ususally when I need it most.

You won't be able to keep Outlook data on a service like that and have it
accessible.

 

[Janet]

Brian,

Thanks so much for the info. The reason I am really resisting archiving my
folders is because it's something I used to do, but I couldn'tt access that
information at all when I searched for it. I was doing it wrong, I'm sure.

For instance:

When I do a search, it only lets me search in 1 folder at a time. So I have
to do a search on each folder until I find the info I'm looking for. And
then, when I do find it and it's something that's been archived, I can't see
what I want. If I'm looking for an email... I can find it after searching in
each folder separately, but when I open it, it only has the header and
NOTHING ELSE. Or if I'm looking for a calendar item and I finally find and
open it, all the notes I've written, the items I've attached and contacts
I've linked to it are gone.

I'm really embarrassed to say that I have almost 1700 emails in my inbox. I
used to zealously file my email into other folders (accounting, promotions,
doctors, teachers etc) but I ran into trouble when I needed to put 1 email
into 3 or 4 different folders in my mail personal folder.

I have tried to backup folders to my zip drive and it runs out of room. I
have a bit less than 1 gig taken up by all my personal folders combined.

What am I doing wrong? And what can I do to avoid disaster?

Thank you!
Janet

Janet <[email protected]> wrote:

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks so much for the info. The reason I am really resisting
archiving my folders is because it's something I used to do, but I
couldn'tt access that information at all when I searched for it. I
was doing it wrong, I'm sure.

Lookout (from Microsoft) or Google Desktop Search go along way to making
searching of Outlook data easier.