OAB files, OST file; replaceing Profile with new one of same name

G

Guest

I'm running Outlook 2003 SP2, XP

I recently went to an outside Exchange hosting service. The profile that we
initially created for the primary mailbox seems to have become corrupted
during setup (old settings that were wrong were left over from a previous
service who screwed things up, and we noticed and removed their mistakes
gradually while setting up this new profile). Outlook has since been prone to
freezing, especially on launch.

To try to solve the issue, we decided to remove the profile and create a new
one. I want it to have the same name -- and I want the OST file to have the
same name. I also like to do things cleanly, and thus decided to remove the
current one first and install a new one fresh rather than just create a
second one (and doing that lets me stay with the same name -- which I realize
may at the same time complicate things a tiny bit).

In talking with the hosting company's tech support, we agreed this was a
good plan. They said that after I removed the Profile, I could move the
remaining OST file elsewhere and then start the profile creation procedure
from scratch.

So, I began to do just that. With Outlook closed (of course), I went into
Settings -- Control Panel -- Mail -- Profiles, and removed the Exchange host
profile.

But then when I went into the folder that has the Outlook files, I realized
that there are not only the PST, LOG, and BAK files with that profile's name,
but there are also six OAB files that are related to it. And I don't know
what to do with those!

They're all only 1KB except for one that's 27 KB. They're also all dated
five days ago. I use Outlook regularly and it syncs every few minutes. The
hosting company has repeatedly told me that the Global Address Book syncs
between their server and my local machine once every night in the middle of
the night (not that I've necessarily had my Outlook left open all night for
any of the past few nights).

Now I'm concerned. I cannot risk corrupting things further, with a business
to run.

Do I just move those six OAB files elsewhere, along with the three main
files that are associated with the recently deleted profile name, and then
just go create a new profile (and give it the same name)? Is it just as
simple as that? Or does that risk losing some contact info or, worse, causing
corruption?

Or, should I leave all the files untouched in the Outlook folder for now and
create a new profile with the same name, and associate it to the existing
files (assuming that can be done)? Then switch to "uncached" mode to make the
OAB files no longer an issue? (I have no idea if I'm on the right track here
so please bear with me.) And then do what I intended from the outset: remove
profile, move all the associated files out of the way, and start fresh with a
new profile?

What's the safest and cleanest way to proceed at this point?

Note that all I've done so far is to remove the profile in Mail -- Profiles,
and to open Outlook in POP mode ("Outlook") just to go into Help -- About to
confirm it's SP2.

THANKS!!


Thanks!
 
N

neo [mvp outlook]

The *.OAB files is just the global address list from Exchange. You can
either move/delete the *.OAB files because Outlook will generally recreate
them the next time you sync(1) or update them about every 24 hours.
 

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