Transferring pst files

[John Orrett]

Hi all, been reading a fair few NG's and websites but still having a
problem with a friend's PC.
He has an old PC with Outlook on (unsure of version), and a new laptop
with Office 2003, both running Win XP. He wanted to transfer all the
folders off the old machine onto the new.
I found the outlook.pst file on the old machine, and copied it across
his network from old machine to new, after first renaming the
outlook.pst file on his new laptop. However, when he starts up Outlook
on the new PC, none of the subfolders have been carried across, only the
basic inbox, deleted items etc.
Can anyone point me in the right direction as to where I'm going wrong.
May thanks,
John

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Not sure what you've been reading. Never rename a PST file. That will
corrupt an Outlook profile.
Where did you "copy across" the old PST file? Never put it into Outlook's
default directory. That will usually corrupt your Outlook profile.
Copy the file to any other location in Outlook. Open it in Outlook. All the
data will be there.

 

[John Orrett]

Not sure what you've been reading. Never rename a PST file. That will
corrupt an Outlook profile.
Where did you "copy across" the old PST file? Never put it into
Outlook's default directory. That will usually corrupt your Outlook
profile.
Copy the file to any other location in Outlook. Open it in Outlook. All
the data will be there.

Hi Russ, I copied the old file into the 'My Documents' folder on the new
laptop, and then into the default Microsoft/Outlook Folder after
renaming the original to outlook.bak.
Should I move the the new outlook.pst file back into 'My Documents', and
rename the original outlook.pst file back again? Presumably if I open
Outlook and choose 'File' 'Open' and then 'Outlook Data File', and then
navigate to the old file in 'My Documents', it should open OK? Will that
then be the default file every time that Outlook opens?
Many thanks as ever for your help.
Best wishes,
John

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Never rename PST files while Outlook is closed.
At this point, can you open any of your current PST files and find your
data?
Did you keep a backup of your original PST file?

 

[John Orrett]

Never rename PST files while Outlook is closed.
At this point, can you open any of your current PST files and find your
data?
Did you keep a backup of your original PST file?

Hi Russ, the original personal folder still opens up OK. I transferred a
copy of the old outlook.pst file from the old pc to the new laptop, and
copied it into the 'My Documents' folder.
When I clicked on 'File, 'Open and Outlook file' and point to the file,
it opens fine, with all data from the old PC on there.
The only confusion I have now (which my friend can live with) is that we
now have 2 'Personal Folders', one with the house symbol on it, and the
other with an icon I'm not sure of!
The one with the house has properties of 'backup.pst' and has no delete
option on it, and the other is 'outlook.pst', but does have a delete
option. I presume as the former is the default profile, it cannot be
removed?
Thanks again for your assistance,
Regards,
John

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

We need to get some terminology straight here first. You are talking about 2
personal folders (PST) files, both of which exist in one Outlook profile.
These are not separate profiles. Also, no personal folders file has a
"delete" option in Outlook. Do you, instead, mean "close?"

A personal folders file with no "close" option simply means it is the
default for that profile. You need to tell me which of these files contains
the data. After that, it will be a simple matter to set that file as the
default and then close the other.

 

[CD]

It's okay to rename a PST, I've done it many times.

I usually create a new folder in My Documents called "Outlook Data" then
store the PST there.
Then go to Control Panel - Inbox and add in the new PST (you cannot "open" a
PST in Outlook - like a Word Document).

Once added, go to email settings and change the default folders to the
"second" personal folders.

Then go back to data files and remove the PST that has no data (you cannot
remove this one until you change the default folder location for email
messages).

Done.

This is very confusing for most, even the so called "MVP-Oulook" people -
how do they get that title anyway?

Never rename PST files while Outlook is closed.
At this point, can you open any of your current PST files and find your
data?
Did you keep a backup of your original PST file?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Hi Russ, I copied the old file into the 'My Documents' folder on the new
laptop, and then into the default Microsoft/Outlook Folder after renaming
the original to outlook.bak.
Should I move the the new outlook.pst file back into 'My Documents', and
rename the original outlook.pst file back again? Presumably if I open
Outlook and choose 'File' 'Open' and then 'Outlook Data File', and then
navigate to the old file in 'My Documents', it should open OK? Will that
then be the default file every time that Outlook opens?
Many thanks as ever for your help.
Best wishes,
John

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You will find that newer versions of Outlook are far more intolerant of
renaming active Outlook data files than older versions. It is not
recommended or supported. All data migration should be done within the
profile itself. After a file is removed from a profile, you can rename it if
you want to.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

It's okay to rename a PST, I've done it many times.

I usually create a new folder in My Documents called "Outlook Data" then
store the PST there.
Then go to Control Panel - Inbox and add in the new PST (you cannot "open"
a PST in Outlook - like a Word Document).

Once added, go to email settings and change the default folders to the
"second" personal folders.

Then go back to data files and remove the PST that has no data (you cannot
remove this one until you change the default folder location for email
messages).

Done.

This is very confusing for most, even the so called "MVP-Oulook" people -
how do they get that title anyway?

Never rename PST files while Outlook is closed.
At this point, can you open any of your current PST files and find your
data?
Did you keep a backup of your original PST file?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote:
Not sure what you've been reading. Never rename a PST file. That will
corrupt an Outlook profile.
Where did you "copy across" the old PST file? Never put it into
Outlook's default directory. That will usually corrupt your Outlook
profile.
Copy the file to any other location in Outlook. Open it in Outlook. All
the data will be there.

Hi Russ, I copied the old file into the 'My Documents' folder on the new
laptop, and then into the default Microsoft/Outlook Folder after
renaming the original to outlook.bak.
Should I move the the new outlook.pst file back into 'My Documents', and
rename the original outlook.pst file back again? Presumably if I open
Outlook and choose 'File' 'Open' and then 'Outlook Data File', and then
navigate to the old file in 'My Documents', it should open OK? Will that
then be the default file every time that Outlook opens?
Many thanks as ever for your help.
Best wishes,
John