How do I open my Outlook 2003 archive folders?

[eve]

I'm trying to get into my Outlook 2003 archive. In Outlook, I have clicked
Go, Folder List, Data File Management. I get a box called Outlook Data Files,
in which there is a Personal Folder. When I highlight it and click Open
Folder, I get a box called Outlook, which shows me 3 folders - archive.pst,
Outlook.pst, and extend.dat. I've tried opening archive.pst and Outlook.pst,
and I get a message that Windows can't open the folders because it doesn't
know which program created them. Shouting 'Outlook 2003, you useless pile of
chips' doesn't seem to have any effect. So how do I get into my archived
e-mails? Thx.

 

[Peter Foldes]

You open them in Outlook. Do you have Outlook installed ??

 

[VanguardLH]

I'm trying to get into my Outlook 2003 archive. In Outlook, I have clicked
Go, Folder List, Data File Management. I get a box called Outlook Data Files,
in which there is a Personal Folder. When I highlight it and click Open
Folder, I get a box called Outlook, which shows me 3 folders - archive.pst,
Outlook.pst, and extend.dat. I've tried opening archive.pst and Outlook.pst,
and I get a message that Windows can't open the folders because it doesn't
know which program created them. Shouting 'Outlook 2003, you useless pile of
chips' doesn't seem to have any effect. So how do I get into my archived
e-mails? Thx.

Since you are using Outlook to use its Data Mgmt wizard to find the .pst
files, the only reasons that I can think of as to why the files cannot
be opened is that they are empty or corrupted. If they are completely
empty, the structure needed to defined even an empty message store is
missing. If they are corrupted then the structure present cannot be
interpreted by Outlook.

Rather than use Data Mgmt in Outlook (which is used to add or change
which .pst file is your message store and which is the default to
receive new mails), just use the File -> Open menu to open the .pst
files (if you just want to view them and NOT make them your default
message store).

When you look at these same .pst files using Windows Explorer, what are
their sizes?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I'm trying to get into my Outlook 2003 archive. In Outlook, I have clicked
Go, Folder List, Data File Management.

Click File>Open>Outlook Data File and browse to where Archive.pst resides.