25 digit product key

[Guest]

My product key is (five digits)-(five digits)-(five digits)-(five
digits)-(five digits) for Office 2003. When I enter my product key, the
program explains it should be (five digits)-(3 digits)-(7 digits)-(5 digits).
I had to restore my computer and I lost the 2003 Outlook program and am
trying to re-install it. I installed 2000 but I still don't have my saved
email messages from 2003. If I install 2003 again will I be able to have
access to my email messages again??

 

[Guest]

You should call Microsoft about this. You must be confusing another product's
key with Office's. What "program explains" the sequence of digits? The Office
key (on the packaging) and the different Windows XP key (pasted on your
computer) are both 5-5-5-5-5 alpha-numeric digits. Your emails are still
there in your personal file, but Office 2000 will not be able to read the
2003 format. You'll be able to use File, Open Outlook Data File on the OL
2003 menu to access your pst file, as long as it's still on your hard drive.
You must first uninstall Office or Outlook 2000 before you reinstall Office
or Outlook 2003. You have corrupted all your Office files by installing an
old version.

 

[Guest]

I only want to purchase 2003 again if I can find my lost emails. I did a
search for Outlook mail on my computer and it came up empty. How do I find
out if those lost emails are on my hard drive?

 

[Galen]

In Jamie had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I only want to purchase 2003 again if I can find my lost emails. I
did a search for Outlook mail on my computer and it came up empty.
How do I find out if those lost emails are on my hard drive?

They're located in your PST file which defaults (you might have moved it) to
something like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\<your name>\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst

You should not have to buy it again. Office 2k3 has
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx for its format. Installing 2k3 will ask for
that. I'm not sure - I've never had to activate over the phone - but are you
trying to ACTIVATE it perhaps? If so then you'd have to call to activate it
or do it over the internet. I haven't ever had to call to do so, so the idea
that I have is that it's usually pretty painless and if you need to activate
it via phone there will be an option to do so. (Can you even activate it
over the phone? I've really never had any problems with activation for
Office - just with some MSDN OSes.)

Anyhow, when you install it again you should be able to use the PST file in
most cases. Here's a link from a much more Office-adept MVP who goes by the
nick of Roady:

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm

Now, ASSuming you still have the old PST file you can just follow the
restore methods listed there. If you can't find the file then try unhiding
hidden files.

Showing Hidden Files:
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/general/show_hidden_files.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"At present I am, as you know, fairly busy, but I propose to devote my
declining years to the composition of a textbook which shall focus the
whole art of detection into one volume." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

Thank you very much. I will try locating my lost emails now.