backing up email/settings in unaccessible Outlook

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Guest

I had Outlook XP Installed on my computer. I upgraded the CPU and
Motherboard. The system was not botting into XP so a friend of mine fixed it
for me. He reinstalled XP Pro but all of my settings were lost. It was as
if XP was installed for the first time. All programs that were previously
installed no longer work and have to be reinstalled. I also have other
issues so I am going to format the drive but I want to keep all of the
settings and emails, contacts, etc from Outlook. All of the fiels are still
on my computer. I never created a backup of any of this. What files do I
need to backup in order to keep my information and just add it to a new
installation of Office?

Thanks
 
cajun said:
I am going to format the
drive but I want to keep all of the settings and emails, contacts,
etc from Outlook. All of the fiels are still on my computer. I
never created a backup of any of this. What files do I need to
backup in order to keep my information and just add it to a new
installation of Office?
Click to expand...

All Outlook data is stored in a file whose extension is ".pst". This file
is usually in a hidden folder whose path is
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. Search
your drive for *.pst and save any you find. You can use whatever means you
wish, but typically a CD or DVD would work fine. After formatting the disk
and reinstalling everything, configure Outlook, copy the PSTs back to some
folder on your hard drive (they don't have to be in the default folder),
making usure you don't overwrite any PST of the same name, remove the
read-only attribute, and in Outlook click FIle>Open>Outlook Data File,
browse to the PST, select it, and click OK. You'll have access to all your
old data. If you had more than one PST, open each individually in turn.
 
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