Backing up and restoring pst files

[Guest]

Running Win XP Pro with Outlook 2002 sp3. Had to reformat machine so we
backed up all of the pst folders to another pc. After reinstalling windows
and Outlook, we imported our backup only it is empty, no contacts, no
nothing. The peculiar thing is the backup file we created is over 50MB in
size. If the file is this large, how is that we have no contacts or anything
else. All help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Brian Tillman]

Running Win XP Pro with Outlook 2002 sp3. Had to reformat machine so
we backed up all of the pst folders to another pc. After
reinstalling windows and Outlook, we imported our backup only it is
empty, no contacts, no nothing. The peculiar thing is the backup
file we created is over 50MB in size. If the file is this large, how
is that we have no contacts or anything else. All help would be
appreciated. Thanks

Never export to or import from a PST. It's unnecessary and you lose data.
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm

 

[Guest]

That's great advise for the future, but what might my options be now that the
export function was used and then the machine reformatted thus erasing the
original pst files? I guess I also have to ask, if the import/export
funtions are that unreliable, why are they even there?

 

[Brian Tillman]

That's great advise for the future, but what might my options be now
that the export function was used and then the machine reformatted
thus erasing the original pst files? I guess I also have to ask, if
the import/export funtions are that unreliable, why are they even
there?

They are there for transferring data between non-Outlook data files.

If you use File>open>Outlook Data File to open the PST and it contain
nothing, then it was damaged in the creation or copy process and you are out
of luck.