Import csv file error

[Patrick]

I am trying to import my backed up emails in outlook 2003 after a system
format and reinstall. I have the csv file on seperate hard disk, but when i
try to import i get Translation Error window with message :- A file error has
occurred in the Comma Seperated Values (Windows) translator while
initializing a translator to build a field map.
Outlook was unable to retrieve the data from the file "F:\Outlook
2003\20-01-2009.CSV". Verify that you have the correct file, that you have
permission to open it, and that it is not open in another program.
I am running vista HP and have had no problems until now. I have tried
running as administrator but no luck.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Why did you export to the csv-format? That doesn't create a proper backup at
all.
I hope you still have the original pst-file so that you can simply reattach
it to Outlook via;
File-> Open-> Outlook Data File...

For backup and restore instructions see;
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I am trying to import my backed up emails in outlook 2003 after a system
format and reinstall.

No need to post more than once. I responded to the first time you asked.

 

[Patrick]

No i dont have original pst file, at least i dont think so, because i had to
format my hard drive. Is there any way to get this back? The file was saved
as csv file automatically, when i clicked import/export wizard i used Comma
Seperated Values (Windows) option. This is the option i always use and until
now have had no problems. I have other csv files that i can import, but the
one i need i cannot. If this file is corrupt is there a way to repair it?

 

[Patrick]

Sorry for double post.

Yes the file opens correctly in excel. I also have other files in csv format
that i can import without a problem. I have tried Reinstalling the Importers
and Exporters as you suggested, but this made no difference. I have also
reinstalled office, which also made no difference.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Ouch! :-S

Do you get this error directly when importing or do you get it somewhere
halfway the importing process?
You can try importing again and verify that all the headers are correctly
mapped.

Is the version of Outlook that you used to export the same as you are trying
with the import?
How big is the csv-file?

What you can do is importing the file into Excel. This might be easier to
determine where things have gone wrong. It might be something simple like a
header missing or something like that. See what you can salvage but I would
start with making a backup of this csv-file first before trying to anything
with it in Excel. In fact, I'd use Excel only to determine a possible error
but would actually repair it via Notepad.

Good luck!

 

[Patrick]

I get the error part way through import, when i choose destination folder. I
have other csv files that i can import without problem.
How do i check if headers are mapped correctly?

The Oulook version is the same as exported file. File size is 605 KB.

I have opened the file in Excel, but i am not sure how it is supposed to
look because i am quite new to Office, to me it looks like a normal Excel
file. Is this correct, or is it supposed to look like an email? How do i
check if headers are missing and how do i repair using notepad?

Also i did a flie recovery on my hard disk and found 29 pst files, which i
tried to open in Outlook. This also causes error and says use scanpst.exe to
diagnose and repair errors, but that does not work. When i use scanpst i get
message Inbox Repair Tool does not recognise the file. No information can be
recovered. The file size for the recovered file is 1.33 GB. Is this file size
normal?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

File size is 605 KB
That file size sounds about right for a failed export especially if I have
to go by the indication that the original in pst-file format was 1.33GB.

If you open your csv-file in Notepad with Word Wrap turned off, each line
stands for an Outlook item. You probably had more Outlook items than lines
in Notepad, right?

The file size for the recovered file is 1.33 GB. Is this file size normal?

That is quite a normal size for a pst-file. It probably has some years of
data in it or you send/receive quite a lot of big attachments, right?

Sadly, disk recovery tools are not so good with recovering pst-files or
database files in general. As you've seem to recover at least part of the
data, you can use a specialized 3rd party pst-recovery tool to see if you
can salvage some data from it. Mind that these tools don't come cheap.

I've had good results with Advanced Outlook Repair from DataNumen;
http://addins.howto-outlook.com/datanumen_outlookrepair
If you decide to order, use DNC-APME-HT to get a discount.

You can try the trial version to see if it can actually recover some or all
of your data before purchasing it.

 

[Patrick]

Thanks for recommending Outlook Repair, however this did not solve the
problem, i got message saying the file may be corrupted. I tried it several
times without success, so i think i should put it down as a lesson learnt and
not use csv in future.

Thank You for taking the time to help me.

 

[James G]

Hi Patrick,
I had the exact same error as you did (well, actually my csv file that I was
trying to get imported into Outlook was from a Nokia PC Suite export but that
is inconsequential) & I searched through the various suggestions people had
made to you on here, tried them as you did but to no avail. Finally, I worked
it out! The problem is that Outlook seems to only accept csv files that have
the same number of fields per contact item (per line) if you catch my drift.

Basically, I learnt this when I exported a few test contacts I put myself
into Outlook into a csv file. I opened this up with notepad & discovered that
the first line of the file had about double the number than that of my
respective csv file (e.g. my file only had "business 1", "business 2" but the
one exported from Outlook had like "business 1", "business 2", "business 3",
"business.abroad"
or something ridiculous). From this, I summised that perhaps Outlook would
only Import files that had the same number of headings that it Exported
itself. I tested this theory by copying & pasting all the lines (bar the
first of course) from my contact list into the one I had exported from
Outlook (again, obviously not over the first line) & then tried to import the
file outlook had exported itself back into itself (I know this is rather hard
to follow sorry!). It worked! I hope you can do the same, just post again if
need be for an attempt at a less muddled description of the solution.