lost contacts

[Bill H.]

Running Windows XP pro.

Installed the 2003 upgrade to Outlook (previous version probably 2002, or
maybe earlier). Client had hit the 2gb file limit. :-( We used the Office
2003 suite, but only selected Outlook (and PowerPoint) at this time.

For some reason, the upgrade did NOT convert from the '02 file format to the
'03 format, nor did the install ask if I wanted to convert, that would
allow much larger file size. So, I created a new 'personal folders' folder
and told it to use the '03 format. That gave me TWO 'Personal Folders' in
Outlook.

Then, I moved the contents of the inbox (very large) to the corresponding
inbox of the new personal folders. I also told outlook to put the incoming
mail into the new personal folders.

Then, I "closed" the old ('02 format) Personal Folder. Now comes the
problem. The prior Outlook had a hugh amount of data in the contacts
folder. I did catch a glimpse of it in the new '03 outlook. However, after
I closed the old personal folders, the contacts were empty! I did not
expect that to happen. :-(

Now, we had switched to OE for a while, and I had exported SOME of the
contacts in the '02 outlook into OE, so now I exported the addresses out of
OE (using csv file format), and then imported into Outlook '03. HOWEVER, I
now learn that there were bunches more of contacts in the old outlook than
we initially exported to OE. So that's the main background.

I need to get back the contacts that were there before I closed out the
original Personal Folders and/or what was in the prior version of Outlook.
How do I do that? (Sorry, no backups!)

Thanks.

 

[Vince Averello [MVP-Outlook]]

First question... do you still have the PST file you used with OL2002? In
all the gyrations you described I'm not sure if you still have it.

 

[Bill H.]

Don't know.

I did not purposely delete it, unless doing that "remove personal folder"
within Outlook was a deletion. I did look in the recycle bin and did not
see it there, but that may not mean anything.

First question... do you still have the PST file you used with OL2002? In
all the gyrations you described I'm not sure if you still have it.

 

[Vince Averello [MVP-Outlook]]

Removing it from the folder list shouldn't delete it from the file system.
Have you checked the whole drive, including in hidden folders, for the file?

 

[Bill H.]

I found the previous pst file and was able to import all the contacts.

Thanks bunch!