Extract Mail from domain account?

[Guest]

Is there a way to extract mail..Inbox/Sent/deleted etc.. from a users account
in XP without having the login for that user? Our server crashed and our
domain setup is no longer working. I can't login to the account so I really
dont know what to do. Simply put where does Outlook store stuff and how can I
get the data to open up in a different account?

Thanks

 

[Diane Poremsky]

are you using exchange server or pst? If you use a pst, you can find them in
the user's directory at
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook but if
you use exchange with ost's you can't open them except from the profile that
created them.

 

[Guest]

We are using PST. Users logged into using server 2003, but the mail was local
to the computer. So what would the process be to open up the mail in another
account?

 

[Tim]

As long as there isn't a password assigned to the pst file, you can open the
pst file using Outlook from any account, just as you would your own pst. You
might have to adjust the file ownership settings.

Tim

 

[Guest]

I don't think I was clear enough in my initial description. The mail was
never backed up, a pst archive or backup was never created. To sum it up, I
need to access to where outlook stores mail that has yet to be backed up and
is just sitting in an inbox on the computer. For example User 1 has outlook
configured and mail within the program. User 1 got locked out of his computer
so now User 2 had to retrieve the mail from User 1's outlook. Thanks!

 

[Tim]

The answer stands (unless I'm still not understanding the problem). If you
were saving messages in pst files (as you indicated below) it doesn't matter
that there aren't any archive files or that there aren't any backups
(actually, that should be troubling to you to not have any backups of your
user's e-mail...but that's a separate issue). As long as the pst files are
not corrupted, do not have a password, and file permissions are set open,
anyone with network access to them can open them via Outlook.

Are you *positive* there isn't an Exchange server involved here?

Tim

 

[Guest]

The user was not saving messages to a pst file. There was never an export
made to a pst file, unless outlook automatically does that itself. So keeping
that in mind were would e-mails that have been been sent to a pst file be
stored/ is there anyway to acess them? Unless I am misunderstanding your
answer..

 

[Tim]

You're contradicting yourself...first you say the users use pst files and
then your first sentence below says the user was not using a pst file and
then later in the same paragraph you again refer to messages sent to a pst
file. Which one is it? Do you know that Outlook can use multiple pst files?
Outlook uses either pst files to store messages or an Exchange server to
store messages. You said you are not using an Exchange server so we are left
with pst files.

The problem (and the beauty) with pst files is that they can be stored
anywhere the user desires. That includes flash drives (not recommended),
network drives (also not recommended), and local drives. They can also be
copied and taken home (a big security problem). That makes your life
(assuming you are the e-mail admin) a little more difficult. You need to
locate where this person's pst file (or files) is/are. No one here can tell
you where it is...you have to either already know or you have to look for
it.

When you find it, then you can open it using the directions written below.

Tim