.PST Files

[James Bond]

My hard drive failed and I purchased and installed a replacement hard drive
from Del.. I then re-installed, with the assistance of Dell Techincal
Support, Windows XP. I then contacted Symantec for assistance in restoring
the data which I had backed up to an external hard drive. I do not have the
original disks for my verion of Office so I have lost Excel, Word and most
importantly Outlook. If I purchase and install a new copy / version of
Office will I be able to access my old e-mails, contacts, etc which are
stored as .PST files?

 

[DL]

Generally Yes, but the version of Outlook you used and the version of Office
you buy may have some barings

 

[James Bond]

Thanks. How would I determine which versions of Office was used previously?

 

[DL]

Impossible unless you have access to your old hard drive.

To expand, if eg you had Office 2003 & you installed an earlier version then
allmost certainly Outlook would not be able to open your previous data file.
If buying / installing either 2003 or later there will be no problem.