Lost all former Outlook email after re-installing Vista

[Nikonos]

In previous Windows versions like XP, 98, 95, etc., I was told by a Microsoft
representative that as your computer ages and starts slowing down, often due
to .dlls, registry errors, junk in temp folders and more are to blame and
said that you can just reinstall your operating system over the previous OS
and it will often fix some of these errors.

I upgraded to Vista Ultimate form XP Pro when it was first released. I
don't remember, but it seems like it has been a couple of years. Lately, my
system has been slowing down in all aspects, so i thought I'd try the old
re-install of the same operating system over the old one. This time,
however, it deleted a lot more files and software than any previous Windows
versions had. The worst was all my previous Microsoft Outlook emails; at
least a couple years worth. I also had to reinstall Office 2007 and set it
up with pop3 as it was before, and only hoped it would have all my emails
saved in a folder somewhere, but I've been looking for hours.

Am I screwed?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Before starting such a major operation you should always run a full backup
first. You are advised to do this as well by the installer.
It sounds like you did a clean install and not an upgrade though. In that
case you are probably out of luck. Look at the installation drive (probably
C:\) and see if there are any folders directly under C:\ renamed to .old. If
so, that is where your old data can be recovered from (do not rename the
folder back).

Another option is to look into the Users folder. If you see your old
username there, that is where your data will be.

FYI: Vista is much more resilient when compared to the older versions of
Windows in terms of slowing down with age. When you feel that Windows has
become much slower since you have first installed it and haven't done many
software/hardware changes in between, then it is better to troubleshoot
these issues. If you have installed a lot of software; remove the packages
you don't use anymore. If you feel you have become infected with malware,
use a proper malware remover. Never use those regcleaners offered on the web
and consider reinstalling only as a last resort. The MVPs in the Windows
Vista newsgroups can help you troubleshoot these kind of issues.

 

[Nikonos]

Thanks Roady.

I undertood that installing it would remove any programs, but some folders
would be renamed Windows.old, which is the first place I looked. It only has
three folders within it; Program Files, Users, and Windows, as well as a
batch file and a system file. I tried to run a few of the programs in the
Program Files folder without success, and the Windows folder, which is 13GB
of files and programs that also seem to work when I click on them. I just
hoped that there might have been an alternative.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

There is no way to run the applications from the .old folder as they are not
installed on the new system. It really is just a repository of worthless
files in that sense.

I assume you already looked in the default location for any pst-files?
C:\%username%\Robert\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

If you find any there, you can see what is inside of them by using in
Outlook: File-> Open-> Outlook Data File...

 

[Nikonos]

No, I hadn't tried "C:\%username%\Robert\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook",
but after reading your reply I did but, no luck. Does the "Robert" part
belong? I tried with and without it. I also tried just searching part of it,
like: AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook, which didn't work either.

This really sucks. If I had any clue I would have so many problems
installing it again over itself I never would have tried it. I don't even
have any sound, though I've tried to unistall the High Def driver and
download a new driver from Realtek, but it hasn't yet worked.

I've spent countless hours trying to FIX this after re-installing it for
what was only costing me a few seconds to a minute or two, hear and there,
when programs were slow.

 

[Pat Willener]

This was very bad advice. Yes, in previous systems like 9x/ME we needed
to reinstall Windows regularly, but we usually did a "repair" or
"verify" install, which would keep all application programs and data.

Since Windows 2000 I have *never* needed to reinstall Windows. There are
many things that you can do to keep Windows running well, but there is
very rarely a need to reinstall.

But if you *really* need to do so, make sure that you backup all your
data, including PST files that contain your email.

P.S. Regular backups are anyway always good practice, even if you don't
plan to reinstall your OS.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Haha, no, the "Robert" part was the part I forget to remove. It's just;
"C:\users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook",

If any search or manually browsing didn't turn up any of your pst-file, I'm
afraid they are gone forever. To prevent this from happening in the future,
think about a backup strategy and relocating files and folder which are
important to you from the C:\ partition and keep them on the separate
partition. You can do this even when there is only 1 physical disk in your
computer. C:\ should actually only contain Windows, your installed
applications and other files needed to keep your computer running. D:\ is a
good drive letter to assign your data to and then have E:\ for an external
drive where you make your backups to.

As for the sound issue, you might want to consult your hardware vendor on
which audio driver you will need for your audio device. If you see a sound
icon with a cross to it in the right bottom corner, it means that no audio
device driver is installed or that the audio service is not running. If you
see a prohibited sign with your sound icon, it means it is muted.

No, I hadn't tried "C:\%username%\Robert\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook",
but after reading your reply I did but, no luck. Does the "Robert" part
belong? I tried with and without it. I also tried just searching part of
it,
like: AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook, which didn't work either.

This really sucks. If I had any clue I would have so many problems
installing it again over itself I never would have tried it. I don't even
have any sound, though I've tried to unistall the High Def driver and
download a new driver from Realtek, but it hasn't yet worked.

I've spent countless hours trying to FIX this after re-installing it for
what was only costing me a few seconds to a minute or two, hear and there,
when programs were slow.