Recovering Outlook 2003 email

[N. David Guarneri]

I am doing some pro bono work for a church. I need help with the
following question:

How do I recover Outlook 2003 email and contacts in Windows XP? All I
have is a backup of "Documents and Settings" and "Program Files". A
backup of the email was not done before the computer crashed. The
setup now is a brand new computer. Outlook is already set up, but the
old emails and contacts have not been restored.

I know in lotus notes all you need is the database file and the profile
file. I don't know how to restore it for outlook, however.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Richard Neville]

Within Outlook, go to File-Import and Export (this is not a Windows issue).
A wizard will appear; search for .pst files, which are those to which
Outlook automatically saves messages and other data. If you can't find the
old .pst file, you may have to search the old and new computers for it. If
it was destroyed, you may be out of luck.

 

[Brian Tillman]

How do I recover Outlook 2003 email and contacts in Windows XP? All I
have is a backup of "Documents and Settings" and "Program Files". A
backup of the email was not done before the computer crashed. The
setup now is a brand new computer. Outlook is already set up, but the
old emails and contacts have not been restored.

Ignore anyone who tells you to use Import and Export. First, enable showing
hidden files and folders by selecting "Show hidden files and folders" and
unchecking "Hide extensions for known file types" in Control
Panel>Appearance and Themes>Folder Options>View. Next, search the saved
"Documents and Settings" tree for any files ending in ".pst". Note their
names and locations. Then open Outlook and click FIle>Open>Outlook Data
File. Browse to one of the PSTs you noted above, select it, and click OK.
See if it contains the data you want. If it does, copy the data it contains
to your current folders. When done, close the old PST with a
right-click>Close. You should be back to normal with the data.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

If you have access to the drive that has not been formatted, use Windows
Search (turn on hidden/system files) and when you find the .pst file(s),
copy them to a safe location (not the same hard drive)

WHen you have the system back up and running, copy the .pst file to the
location of your choice and use File->Open->Personal Folders File (or
Outlook Data File - depending on the Outlook versoin). Do not import the
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, N. David Guarneri asked:

| I am doing some pro bono work for a church. I need help with the
| following question:
|
| How do I recover Outlook 2003 email and contacts in Windows XP? All I
| have is a backup of "Documents and Settings" and "Program Files". A
| backup of the email was not done before the computer crashed. The
| setup now is a brand new computer. Outlook is already set up, but the
| old emails and contacts have not been restored.
|
| I know in lotus notes all you need is the database file and the
| profile file. I don't know how to restore it for outlook, however.
|
| Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.