I removed an exchange server account and now lost all the .pst fi.

[Guest]

A friend had an old exchange server account as well as a POP3 with a local
ISP. She said they seemed to conflict and she didn't need the exchange server
account any more. The POP3 account was downloading mail into the same pst
input file. I deleted the exchange account and all the .pst files went with
it. Is there any way to recover the old files. I couldn't find them by
searching the machine for .pst files. Any help is desparately appreciated.
She really needs the old email and contact files. Thanks.

 

[Vagabond Software]

A friend had an old exchange server account as well as a POP3 with a local
ISP. She said they seemed to conflict and she didn't need the exchange server
account any more. The POP3 account was downloading mail into the same pst
input file. I deleted the exchange account and all the .pst files went with
it. Is there any way to recover the old files. I couldn't find them by
searching the machine for .pst files. Any help is desparately appreciated.
She really needs the old email and contact files. Thanks.

Your friend's data is in an .ost file, not a .pst file. Find the .ost file and copy it to backup folder. Try and add the Exchange server again and configure it to start offline. Try to use the .ost file again. If you manage to open it, you will want to use the File-Export menu dialog to export your .ost data to a Personal Folders file (.pst). Only then may you safely get rid of the Exchange account.

If none of that is possible, then whether or not you can recover the information for free will depend on the version of Outlook you were using. If you are using Outlook 2000, then the publicly available ost2pst.exe utility should work to convert the .ost file to a .pst file that can be imported.

http://hellomate.typepad.com/exchange/2003/07/ost_to_pst.html

If your friend is using Outlook 2003, you will need to contact Password Crackers and pay them $40 to convert the file for you. You could also use a service like Payam for $20, but I have never actually used them before.

http://www.pwcrack.com/index.shtml
http://www.payam.com.au/

Good Luck,

carl