.pst folder help - thanks!

[Terri]

How do I put a .pst folder in My Documents for constant up to date copying?
Mine seems to be in a folder called Office Data File which I cannot open but
do not see any pst file...can someone kindly help me out here?
Thanks!

 

[Mark Dormer]

Right click the pst in outlook and select properties and then click Advanced
You will see the location of the file.

Depending on your view settings it may be hidden.

Close the pst, (right click it, close)
Move the file to the location you desire.
Open Outlook
select File - Open - Outlook Data File
Browse to the file and select it. OK

Done

Regards
Mark Dormer

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

WHile the location is known, you need to enable viewing hidden files/folders to actually see the .pst file.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Terri asked:

| How do I put a .pst folder in My Documents for constant up to date
| copying? Mine seems to be in a folder called Office Data File which I
| cannot open but do not see any pst file...can someone kindly help me
| out here?
| Thanks!

 

[Terri]

I can't find the .pst in Outlook that is the problem!

 

[Terri]

I see a Backup file (Office Data File) and when I go to it, it says "You are
attemping to open a file of type (Office Data File (.pst). These files are
used by the operating system and by various programs. Editing or modifying
them could damage your system. If you still want toopen the file, click Open
With, otherwise click cancel.
So - are my pst files in there? I cannot see them - should I put the entire
backup in My Documents:? If I cannot open them, then what is the point
because I cannot locate any contacts I have lost!


"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
WHile the location is known, you need to enable viewing hidden files/folders
to actually see the .pst file.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Terri asked:

| How do I put a .pst folder in My Documents for constant up to date
| copying? Mine seems to be in a folder called Office Data File which I
| cannot open but do not see any pst file...can someone kindly help me
| out here?
| Thanks!

 

[F. H. Muffman]

The only way to open a PST file is from *within* Outlook. File - Open -
Outlook Data File.

As for where your PST files are, that might be where they are. Do you have
the PST you want to move open in Outlook already?

 

[Terri]

Now I seem to understand - so if I want to makebackups in My Docume4nts, I
have to move the entire folder to there - correct??

The only way to open a PST file is from *within* Outlook. File - Open -
Outlook Data File.

As for where your PST files are, that might be where they are. Do you
have the PST you want to move open in Outlook already?

--
f.h.

I see a Backup file (Office Data File) and when I go to it, it says "You
are attemping to open a file of type (Office Data File (.pst). These files
are used by the operating system and by various programs. Editing or
modifying them could damage your system. If you still want toopen the
file, click Open With, otherwise click cancel.
So - are my pst files in there? I cannot see them - should I put the
entire backup in My Documents:? If I cannot open them, then what is the
point because I cannot locate any contacts I have lost!


"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
WHile the location is known, you need to enable viewing hidden
files/folders to actually see the .pst file.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Terri asked:

| How do I put a .pst folder in My Documents for constant up to date
| copying? Mine seems to be in a folder called Office Data File which I
| cannot open but do not see any pst file...can someone kindly help me
| out here?
| Thanks!

 

[F. H. Muffman]

Ummm.. Maybe?

Let's back up.

What *exactly* do you want to do?
Do you want to back up *all* PSTs?
Do you want to back up a *certain* PST(s)?

 

[Terri]

Thanks for replying!

I am primarily interested in backing up My Contacts to a folder in My
Documents. As I explained previously, I had to do a complete restore and
somehow lost contacts that were on my external Maxtor drive and I dont want
that to happen again. I can't open from "within" Outlook on the external
drive (or if I can, I don't know how to do that), so I don't want another
bad episode of losing information again...

So I will settle for backing up the contacts to my docs!

Terri

 

[F. H. Muffman]

Ok, lets start with the Maxtor drive backup, which I had asked a question
about but don't remember seeing an answer.

When you made your backup to that drive, what software did you use to do the
backup?

That leads into the question of backing up your current PST. For
clarification, your Contacts folder is not a seperate entity and doesn't get
backed up seperately. You aren't backing up your Contacts, even if that's
all you care about, you're backing up your PST.

What software are you going to use to make backups? Are you simply going to
drag files to the Maxtor drive? Do you have a backup software that came
with the drive?

Generically speaking, you need to know the path to the PST you are currently
using. So, you right-click on the Personal Folders, select Properties,
click Advanced and copy that file name into Start - Run, delete the file
name (whatever.pst) and hit Ok. That'll open an Explorer window to that
directory. Then, you exit out of Outlook. Hit Control-Shift-Escape and
pull up the Processes tab and make sure outlook.exe is not currently
running. If it is, End Task it (it's likely to be open if there's an add-in
keeping it open, or ActiveSync).

Once that's done, copy the PST file to the directory you want it to
permanently reside in.

Then, go to Control Panel - Mail and configure your profile to use the newly
relocated PST. I couldn't give you steps to do that without knowing what OS
and version of Outlook that you're running.

Fire up Outlook and then try to rename the PST file that is in the
*original* location. If you're able to successfully rename it, then you're
using the newly relocated one and can get rid of the original one.

Now, in order to back up that PST, Outlook can *NOT* be running. So you'd
need to verify it is not running before doing whatever backup you want to
do.

 

[Terri]

Yes - I use the software that came with Maxtor - it is called Retrospect. I
select which files I want to back up...

I use Windows XP and Outlook 2003...

T

 

[F. H. Muffman]

Ok, when you selected the files you wanted to back up, did you select the
PST file? In my generic steps, were you able to perform any of it, or did
you get lost at some point? If you got lost, at what point did you get
lost? Were you able to get the path to your PST file?

 

[Terri]

I am at the Control Panel/Mail/Profiles/Data Files/Settings - do I

 

[F. H. Muffman]

Did you copy the PST to that location? If yes, then yes.

 

[Terri]

You said if I got stuck to let you know. Yes I did copy it to My Documents
and now
I am at the Control Panel/Mail/Profiles/Data Files/Settings step. Am
confused- do I
just take the old setting and delete the D&S/Adm/Local/App
Data/Microsfot/Outlook/Outlook.pst and change it to it to C:\Documents and

 

[F. H. Muffman]

Ok, once the file has been copied to My Documents, first, you change the
path to the PST in Control Panel - Mail to point to that new location.

Once that has been done, start Outlook.

Then, go to where the file was originally and try to rename the file you
copied. If you're able to rename it, there are two possibilities: Either
that isn't the PST file you should have copied or you did everything right.

 

[Terri]

Having problems and can't get beyond a certain step.
Again, using XP Pro and Outlook 2003. I have copied the PST file to the
directory I want it to permanently reside in which is C - d&S - Adm - My
Documents.

Then when I go to Control Panel - Mail to configure to use the newly
relocated PST, I cannt change the path because I cannot delete what is there
now. I did try renaming the old PST but when i fired up Outlook, it could
not find it. Control Panel - Mail leads to 3 things: Email Accounts - Data
Files and Profiles. When I go to Profiles and then Properties I am taken to
Email accounts and Data Files. When I go to Data Files, there is the
Personal Folder with the filename. I go to Settings and cannot change the
file name in there..

I am afraid I need more instructions.

Thanks!

 

[Gordon]

Having problems and can't get beyond a certain step.
Again, using XP Pro and Outlook 2003. I have copied the PST file to the
directory I want it to permanently reside in which is C - d&S - Adm - My
Documents.

Then when I go to Control Panel - Mail to configure to use the newly
relocated PST, I cannt change the path because I cannot delete what is
there now.

That's not the way to do it. You ADD the new pst file, set it as default,
and THEN remove the reference to the old.
HTH

 

[Terri]

Gordon:
I don't know where to add this - can you walk me through it?
Thanks.

 

[F. H. Muffman]

Ok, lets just go through the steps here:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA011124801033.aspx

Just do the Move the .pst file to another location part.

If I had known that page was there, I'd have just sent you there in the
first place.