Importing an Address Book

[Guest]

I have just purchased a new computer with Outlook 2000 on the C drive. My old
hard drive was installed on my new machine and contained my old Outlook 2000
files. How do I import my old address book to my new C drive Outlook?

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have just purchased a new computer with Outlook 2000 on the C
drive. My old hard drive was installed on my new machine and
contained my old Outlook 2000 files. How do I import my old address
book to my new C drive Outlook?

The way to transfer your data is to copy the PST from the old drive to the
new (or, in fact, you can just leave it where it is; Outlook doesn't care)
and, in Outlook click FIle>Open>Personal Folders File, browse to the PST,
select it and click OK. If you have an existing PST, you can then copy the
items from the old one to the new one.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Brian. I could not find any files on my old drive with a pst
extension. Where is this file typically located? The guy who set up my new
computer deleted all the Windows files on my old drive (at my request). Could
it be that the suspect pst file was deleted? If so, is there any way to
recover it?

Don

 

[Brian Tillman]

I could not find any files on my old drive with a pst
extension. Where is this file typically located?

They can be anywhere, but the default location is the hidden folder
x:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook, for Windows 2000/XP. For Windows 98/ME, they would
have been under the x:\Windows folder. Did you enable searching hidden
files and folders when you looked?

The guy who set up
my new computer deleted all the Windows files on my old drive (at my
request). Could it be that the suspect pst file was deleted? If so,
is there any way to recover it?

It's possible they were deleted, depending on which Windows you were using.
It's also a possibility they can be recovered (but not one you can count
on). You'll need an undelete tool like
http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/

 

[Guest]

Thanks Brian. That is very helpful information. I will first try to see if
there is a hidden file. Restoring deleted files may be a bit over my head bt
I appreciated the directions you have given me.

Don

 

[Guest]

I have just purchased a new computer with Outlook 2000 on the C drive. My old
hard drive was installed on my new machine and contained my old Outlook 2000
files. How do I import my old address book to my new C drive Outlook?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You don't import.
Just open your previous Outlook data file and copy what you want from it.
Or just reuse that file as the default in your new installation.

 

[Guest]

I can't find my address book file either. I finally found my dbx message
files in x:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application
Data\Idenities, then under the individual identities. But there are no .pst
files to be found, even with a file search of hidden files and folders. I
tried looking for .wab files , too, but no luck. Is there any hope for me?

 

[DL]

OE and OL are completely different programs that use different files.
OE uses I believe the *.wab, you have to search to include hidden files.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I can't find my address book file either. I finally found my dbx
message files in x:\Documents and Settings\user\Local
Settings\Application Data\Idenities, then under the individual
identities. But there are no .pst files to be found, even with a
file search of hidden files and folders. I tried looking for .wab
files , too, but no luck. Is there any hope for me?

Outlook Express, not Office Outlook uses dbx files and wab files. If you're
concerned about dbx files and wab files, you're in the wrong newsgroup.
Visit instead
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlookexpress.general