Office 2k3 Beta tester woes. Cant import .pst back into xp

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike

Hello,

I am sure that there has to be a solution to this
problem. I know that MS would not leave it's beta testers
without a way to revert back to their old office. I have
attempted to import my Outlook 2003 Beta .pst file into
my Outlook XP and I get an error stating that it is not
compatible. Please tell me that there is a way for me to
retrieve all of my old emails. I saved the pst file, and
I removed Office 2003 as per the terms of the beta
license and saved a copy of my .pst file. I the re-
installed Office XP.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Mike
 
If you created the PST with Outlook 2003, you created a format that was
incompatible with Outlook 2002 or 2000. You would need to reinstall Outlook
2003 (since the beta has expired I'd suggest getting a trial version). Then
create a new PST file and make sure it's the 97-2002 compatible format PST
file. Then you can export your items from the new format to the old format
PST and open the old format PST in the previous version of Outlook.
 
Hello Patricia,

Thank you for the information. What would I have to do?
Export the pst file as a 2002 version? How could I get
the trial version to do this? I may be being a little
rash here, but I would think that is MS had people beta
testing their product and asking us to send in
evaluations (which I did) they should have a way for us
to revert back to our old version, which by the way was
what was stated we would be able to do in the beta
license. I have beta tested many products for MS because
I really do like the products that they distribute. I
have never had a problem like this before when I have
beta tested. Of course I could install a crack to make
the whole office suite usable, but I do not believe in
doing that because I am a business owner myself. But I do
need to recover my pst file and the emails within, since
like I said, I am a business owner and there are
important files in there. Could you point me in the right
direction to saving the file in an XP compatible format
as well as getting the trial version so I can export it?
I do need this information asap (monday am EST. Thank
you. Mike
 
It was clearly documented that the new Unicode PST format was not compatible
with previous versions. Unfortunately there's not much you can do other than
order the eval version. Once you have that, you can easily create a new pst
file using the instructions in my previous reply. Just select the 97-2002
compatible format option and export your items into that format.

You can order the eval version from
http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/trial.mspx

If you have MSDN or TechNet you should have Office on CD. Other than that,
as it's still November 30th (as of 6:30 Pacific Time), you might be able to
reinstall the beta version long enough to create a new PST. I'm not sure if
the "expires on November 30th" means it will work today or not. You don't
have to activate it, using it just once to create a new PST should work just
fine if the date doesn't cause problems.

Sorry, I hope this helps.
 
Patricia,

Thank you for the information. I know that this is not
your fault and you did not cause this problem and you are
only trying to help.

My problem is with MS in this case. I am a business owner
and my wife is an attorney. There are a lot of emails in
our pst file for both of our careers. You said that this
was clearly documented that the new unicode was not
copmpatible. I have the complete Office 2k3 set that was
shipped to me. All 15 disks and the pamphlets that they
came in which is all that I received. Nowhere within this
doccumentation does it say that there would be
compatibility issues or that I would have problems
reverting back to the version that I paid almost $500.00
for.

The software has expired as of today and even after I re-
intalled it, the option to import/export is greyed out as
not an option.

I can not wait the 7-10 days that it would take to get a
disk. Is there not another way to do this. My wife is
furious since she has cases that are pending.

Mike
 
Mike,

I realize you're frustrated. This is the major reason why you should NEVER
use beta software for production use.

The incompatibility is many places on the web, as well as in the help files.
I don't have my beta documentation here any more though. I realize that
doesn't help you now though.

You could go buy Outlook 2003 (standalone) from a computer store such as
Staples or Office Depot. At least that will only cost you $100. Short of
that, you're really out of luck there. I'm really sorry.
 
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