Outlook 2003 keeps trying to reinstall something...

[efin]

I just got myself a new laptop, and they had the hard drive split in two even
partitions (which was driving me crazy). So made it one big drive, and then
Outlook just stopped working, saying something like "Drive D: is invalid." I
know I made sure there was absolutely nothing on that drive.

Anyway, I made a smaller drive D:, and it started working again. But now
every single time I start Outlook, it goes through the "Please wait while
Windows configures Microsoft Office Profesional 2003..." mumbo jumbo as if
I'm installing an update or something. It works fine, but it's pretty
annoying since I have to wait for it to get into Outlook.

Any ideas? Do I just need to wipe and reinstall the dang thing?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

What exactly did you move from the D:\ drive?
Do you let the installer finish or do you cancel its operation?

 

[efin]

I didn't move anything from the D: drive, since it was brand-new and nothing
was on it yet. It's just that I had installed Office before I got rid of it
to make more rom on C:, and Office didn't like it for some reason -
especially Outlook.

I let the installer finish every time. It does the "Gathering required
information..." thing, then cycles through a couple more quick times, and
then it's done until the next time I start.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Do you get the same behavior when you start another Office application as
the first application instead of Outlook? For example, what happen when you
start Word as the first application after restarting computer?

Which application do you use to resize your partitions? While these can be
very handy to resize a disk without reinstalling Windows, they are also
known to cause these kind of weird issues. I personally would never
recommend using a partition resize tool, especially not on the partition
that has your OS installed on it. Too many bad memories (luckily only on
testing machines ;-)

 

[efin]

Nope, just Outlook. Also, it's every time I start it - not just after I've
rebooted. Very odd!

As for the partitioning, I used to tool built-in to Vista (Administrative
Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management). It could use a bit more work,
but it's actually pretty spiffy! I was very happy to see such a thing within
Windows, since it should be a part of the OS anyway.

PS~Sorry if this gets double-posted. It brought me right to a "server is
busy" page...

 

[Roady [MVP]]

See if a Detect and Repair helps;
Help-> Detect and Repair

Another thing that could help is starting with a new mail profile. You can
create a second mail profile just for testing purposes and when that one
works you can remove the old one.
See http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm