How does one merge several .PST files in 2003?

[Guest]

Folks,
I used to Import feature of outlook to merge several .PST files I had, and
as I found out later, it created a DUPLICATE identical Personal Folders which
I could not get rid of - I ended up having to delete the Profile, reentering
all my accounts information and it is all good now.

I however, need to MERGE multiple .PST files and I DO NOT want to use that
import feature again. I tried it again in a VPC and the results are
reproducible. It creates that duplicate folder ...

Any techniques out there for MERGING 4-5 .pst files into one, after which I
will take it apart to make sure it won't get too big.

Any advice?

Cheers,
Baram

 

[Pat Willener]

You were right to discover that Import is not the way to merge or copy
PST file data.

Open the files in Outlook, then copy (drag and drop) the items you want
into the target Personal Folders File.

 

[Guest]

There are a great number of messages, 21000 in the biggest, 17000 in the
smallest, with a great number of duplicates and overlapping dates in these
PST files due to several years of email exchange amongst 3-4 people, and
poor/badly designed overlapping backups.

In other words, a simply copy (drag & drop), which would have been lovely,
would create a great number of duplicates.
Aside from messages, there were overlapping notes, contacts, tasks, etc.