Back up utility sucks!

[Paul Ingram]

There is a lot of things that I like about Outlook 2003, but the back up
utility isn't one of them. I come from using a contact management program
where you simply click to back up every thing and then click again to
restore your entire file. I mean if something causes you to have to reformat
and then you restore everything is there just the way you saved it.

So far with my experimenting with Outlook it's not the same.

After backing up I burn the back up file to CD. I take it to my other
computer to try and restore it to Outlook 2003 there. I click File > Backup

Open Backup.

It shows me the file on the disc to I select it.
Nothing apparent happens on the screen except I see new folders.
I click there an low and behold there is the customer contacts.
I select anyone double click and select the "All Activities" tab. Nothing
for any of them where did all of activities for the contacts go.
IMHO when you back up EVERYTHING should be backing up Email messages,
addresses, distribution list, everything! Isn't that what backing up is all
about anyway???

If there is some way to do what I want would some kind soul direct me
please?

TIA

--
Paul Ingram
DNS SYSTEMS LIMITED
(902) 488-3166
Web: www.dnssystemsltd.com
Email: (e-mail address removed)

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The Activities view is dynamic, built on demand based on the activities
groups defined for the contacts folder. If there are no activities groups,
bring up the properties of the contacts folder and you can add them.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Paul]

The Activities view is dynamic, built on demand based on the activities
groups defined for the contacts folder. If there are no activities groups,
bring up the properties of the contacts folder and you can add them.

What the heck did you just say?

 

[Paul]

What the heck did you just say?

I think I figured out how to copy/paste items out of the backup file
over into the current Outlook file, but I still can figure out how to
back up all associated Activities for each contact.

I don't see the benefit of Outlook, if after each time you restore, you
lose all previous correspondence with that customer.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Right-click your default Contacts folder, choose Properties, then switch to
the Activities tab. See the different Activities groups there? Double-click
All Activities to see which folders it's looking at.

Now, repeat with the contacts folder that you have in the backup file, whose
folder you should be able to see in Outlook's Folders List. You will
probably have to reset the All Activities view to look at the correct
folders. For reasons I've never understood, they seem to be sensitive to the
exact file location.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Paul Ingram]

Right-click your default Contacts folder, choose Properties, then switch to
the Activities tab. See the different Activities groups there? Double-click
All Activities to see which folders it's looking at.

Now, repeat with the contacts folder that you have in the backup file, whose
folder you should be able to see in Outlook's Folders List. You will
probably have to reset the All Activities view to look at the correct
folders. For reasons I've never understood, they seem to be sensitive to the
exact file location.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

OK, I clicked the TAB to show all the folder I have. I see Contacts at the
top of the page in the column on the left. I right click Contacts and then
click Properties. This opened the Contact Properties box. Next I click the
Activities TAB. I see the following listed:

JOURNAL
UPCOMING TASKS / APPOINTMENTS
CONTACTS
NOTES
EMAIL
ALL ITEMS

OK, I take this to mean that it is tracking everything I see. I didn't see
anything listed as All Activities in this list, but as shown above, there is
All Items listed. I double clicked this and nothing happened.

If I click modify there is a heading of Personal Folders with a drop down
that has all the folders listed with boxes that you can check off. I notice
that if I select contacts and then click modify the contacts box is checked.
If I select All Items only the Personal Folders box at the top of the page
is checked.

With respect to what you said about doing the same thing to the Backup
folder, how do I find that? Do I have to select File > Backup > Open Backup
and then do the same thing?

Please be patient, I come from using Maximizer Contact Management program. A
lot of this is new to me.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

If I click modify there is a heading of Personal Folders with a drop down

that has all the folders listed with boxes that you can check off. I
notice
that if I select contacts and then click modify the contacts box is
checked.
If I select All Items only the Personal Folders box at the top of the page
is checked.

You should also notice that the "include subfolders" box is checked. This
means that Outlook searches all folders in that Personal Folders .pst file
whenever you view the All Items activities group for a contact.

With respect to what you said about doing the same thing to the Backup
folder, how do I find that? Do I have to select File > Backup > Open
Backup
and then do the same thing?

It depends on what you want to do with the backup file, which I'm not sure
you ever indicated in detail. You can open any .pst file in Outlook with the
File | Open | Outlook Data File (or Personal Folders File) command, then use
the Folder List to view its folders.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Paul Ingram]

You should also notice that the "include subfolders" box is checked. This

means that Outlook searches all folders in that Personal Folders .pst file
whenever you view the All Items activities group for a contact.

I see a check box that says "Search Subfolders" is this what you mean?

Here is what I actually want to be able to do.

Let's say I have been saving email, documents, etc on one particular
contact. At any time I can double click on their name to open the contact
up. One of the tabs is entitled "Activities". When I click this is shows me
all the correspondence between me and that customer. Phone calls are logged,
documents and logged and any email to and from the customer are logged in
this location. If the customer questions anything we agreed on I can open up
that email, document or whatever and say, "No here is a copy of what we
agreed on".

If I back this up I want everything to back up so that if I ever had to
reformat or move to a different computer I can restore everything to look
exactly the same as before formatting. I want to be able to click the
Activities TAB and see all the correspondence still archived for this
customer. If I lose this I would be "up the creek so to speak"

Do you understand what I am looking for?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Yes, I understand exactly what you're looking for. The steps I've outlined
describe how to make the Activities tab do that by making sure that you have
activities groups that point to the desired folders.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Paul Ingram]

OK, so let me see.
I guess where I am stuck is the part about the sub folders.
Sue, If I go back into Properties of the Contacts and then select lets say,
Upcoming Tasks / Appointments, I click modify and then should I be checking
off everything found in this folder? The top of the Properties box says,
Upcoming Tasks / Appointments, the calender is checked and the Tasks box is
checked. Should anything else be checked off? Like what about Journal,
should that be checked off?
In Upcoming Tasks / Appointments the Personal Folders box is not checked off
here, but is checked under "All Items" properties.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

It's up to you to decide which folders you want to include in each
activities group. It depends on what information you want to see in each
activities tab category.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Paul Ingram]

OK, I think I see what your saying, but how do I confirm everything has
backed up.

Also, is there any instructions I could be directed to telling me how to
properly recover this information?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

If you're using the Personal Folders Backup utility from Microsoft, it just
makes a copy of your .pst file, which contains all your data. YOu can open
any .pst file in Outlook with the File | Open | Outlook Data File/personal
Folders File command.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Paul]

If you're using the Personal Folders Backup utility from Microsoft, it just
makes a copy of your .pst file, which contains all your data. YOu can open
any .pst file in Outlook with the File | Open | Outlook Data File/personal
Folders File command.

OK,
I went backed up the file I needed.
I clicked FILE > BACKUP > OPEN BACKUP
I selected the file
It then opens a second Personal Folders group below the default one.
The one below has all my correct Calendar appointments the one above
does not.
How do I get the data from the bottom to the top. You can see to close
the folders on the bottom, but not the top.
I now have 2 sets of folders, but wish to be working with only one.

Also, Files that were linked to one contact are now not showing under
activities for that contact. They use to show before the back up. Now
this is where I may learn how Outlook does what it does. I don't current
have the file on the drive of this computer yet that it formally was
linked to. If I install those files will Outlook automatically identify
them and again create the link or will every linked file have to be done
from scratch again???

 

[Paul]

OK,
I went backed up the file I needed.
I clicked FILE > BACKUP > OPEN BACKUP
I selected the file
It then opens a second Personal Folders group below the default one.
The one below has all my correct Calendar appointments the one above
does not.
How do I get the data from the bottom to the top. You can see to close
the folders on the bottom, but not the top.
I now have 2 sets of folders, but wish to be working with only one.

Also, Files that were linked to one contact are now not showing under
activities for that contact. They use to show before the back up. Now
this is where I may learn how Outlook does what it does. I don't current
have the file on the drive of this computer yet that it formally was
linked to. If I install those files will Outlook automatically identify
them and again create the link or will every linked file have to be done
from scratch again???

Sue, If I open the Personal Folders that I backed up and then right
click Contacts then Properties and then Activities and then Reset
everything. Will all the information be transferred to the Default
Folders above?

 

[Brian Tillman]

I went backed up the file I needed.
I clicked FILE > BACKUP > OPEN BACKUP

Sue said File>Open>Outlook Data File.

I selected the file
It then opens a second Personal Folders group below the default one.
The one below has all my correct Calendar appointments the one above
does not.
How do I get the data from the bottom to the top. You can see to close
the folders on the bottom, but not the top.
I now have 2 sets of folders, but wish to be working with only one.

Change your default delivery location to the second set of folders and close
the top ones or drag-and-drop whatever you want from the bottom ones and
place them in the top ones and close the bottom ones when done.

 

[Paul Ingram]

Change your default delivery location to the second set of folders and close
the top ones or drag-and-drop whatever you want from the bottom ones and
place them in the top ones and close the bottom ones when done.

Brian I tried the Drag and Drop thing, but I found that what it did was put
the backed up information in as a Sub Directory. I.E. I had the Contacts
folder which shows current information and a sub directory named Contacts1
that shows the backed up information.

Let me ask another question. Is there any way that I can save the whole
Outlook Directory onto a CD which contains any pst files and then use then
on a fresh Outlook install to over write existing folders giving me all the
information I need?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Brian I tried the Drag and Drop thing, but I found that what it did
was put the backed up information in as a Sub Directory. I.E. I had
the Contacts folder which shows current information and a sub
directory named Contacts1 that shows the backed up information.

Don't drag the permanent folders themselves. Drag the contents of the
folders after selecting it all (CTRL-A) in Category View.

Let me ask another question. Is there any way that I can save the
whole Outlook Directory onto a CD which contains any pst files and
then use then on a fresh Outlook install to over write existing
folders giving me all the information I need?

If you overwrite files in an installed Outlook, you surely will corrupt your
mail profile along the way. There are some files that can be overwritten in
a few circumstances (like the NK2 file) but overwriting a PST will mess you
up for sure. The best way to move Outlook data is to copy the old PST
somewhere (including the default location Outlook expects to see it,
provided you give it a name different from any other PST in that folder) and
use File>Open to open it, dragging and dropping to your current PST
afterward, or importing it into your current PST or, after opening it,
making it your default delivery location and moving anything in your current
PST into it, since it will now be where Outlook performs its item handling.