outlook 2000 pst opens in outlook 2003 but no mail messages

[jp]

My question may be similar to that asked here a lot, but I couldn't find this
exact problem. Sorry if this is already answered somewhere. I am running
Office 2003 on my home PC using Windows XP Home, and I would like to be able
to open emails from an old Office 2000 .pst file.

As suggested in another thread, (between Jim and Brian Tillman on 12/2 and
12/3/2007) I created a new mail profile and new .pst file, and opened the old
..pst file using File>Open>Outlook Data File. So far, so good. But here's
the problem: I cannot see any mail items. Doesn't matter whether its my
inbox, drafts, sent items, or any subfolders of those. It just displays an
empty inbox. I can, however, open my old notes, calendar items, contacts,
etc. with no problem. I did not get any messages asking me to repair the
inbox or anything like that, it just opens without the mail items.

Is there any way to rescue my old emails? Please, hoping someone can help...

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Are you sure you got the correct pst-file?
Did you copy it directly form your Outlook 2000 installation or did you use
Export to create the pst-file?

 

[DL]

And why create a new Profile?
Within OL, File>Open>Data File......and browse to the old pst (located in
any suitable location on your hd)

 

[jp]

Hi Roady, thanks for your reply.

Pretty sure its the correct file. I've copied them directly from a backup I
made of an old computer, did not use export to create them, AFAIK. On that
old computer, I ran a search to find files named *.pst, and the search
results showed two, one named "outlook.pst", another named "archive.pst".
I've tried opening both of those, with the same result of having no mail
messages.

 

[jp]

Hi DL, thanks for your reply. I created the new profile b/c it was suggested
in an earlier post on what I thought was a similar problem to mine:
(not sure how to post a URL, but here goes
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...70fe&catlist=&dglist=&ptlist=&exp=&sloc=en-us

(in case that didn't work, the title of the thread was: PST file from Office
2000 wont work in Office 2007, thread started 12/2/2007)

Anyhow, after creating the profile and restarting Outlook to log in under
it, my very next step was exactly as you suggested: to use File>Open>Data
File and browse to the .pst. The pst files opened without a hitch, except
that the mail folders were all blank, as I noted in my earlier post.

 

[DL]

And what size are these two pst files on disk?

Hi DL, thanks for your reply. I created the new profile b/c it was
suggested
in an earlier post on what I thought was a similar problem to mine:
(not sure how to post a URL, but here goes
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...70fe&catlist=&dglist=&ptlist=&exp=&sloc=en-us

(in case that didn't work, the title of the thread was: PST file from
Office
2000 wont work in Office 2007, thread started 12/2/2007)

Anyhow, after creating the profile and restarting Outlook to log in under
it, my very next step was exactly as you suggested: to use File>Open>Data
File and browse to the .pst. The pst files opened without a hitch, except
that the mail folders were all blank, as I noted in my earlier post.

 

[Brian Tillman]

My question may be similar to that asked here a lot, but I couldn't
find this exact problem. Sorry if this is already answered
somewhere. I am running Office 2003 on my home PC using Windows XP
Home, and I would like to be able to open emails from an old Office
2000 .pst file.

As suggested in another thread, (between Jim and Brian Tillman on
12/2 and 12/3/2007) I created a new mail profile and new .pst file,
and opened the old .pst file using File>Open>Outlook Data File. So
far, so good. But here's the problem: I cannot see any mail items.
Doesn't matter whether its my inbox, drafts, sent items, or any
subfolders of those. It just displays an empty inbox. I can,
however, open my old notes, calendar items, contacts, etc. with no
problem. I did not get any messages asking me to repair the inbox or
anything like that, it just opens without the mail items.

If you opened your old PST, then you should be able to see its contents. If
it contains nothing, then it was empty before you started.

Describe the COMPLETE process you went through - every single click and
everything you typed (excluding personal information, of course).

 

[jp]

OK, maybe this is strange, or maybe not, but on my backup disk, archive.pst
is 87,033 KB and outlook.pst is 55,321 KB. I copied these over to my
computer and opened them using outlook 2003, and now the same files read
1,505 KB for both.

 

[DL]

You copied with OL closed?
If you copied a 87033kb file then whatever media you copied to should show
identical size.
You did'nt ovewrite any existing pst?

 

[jp]

You copied with OL closed?

AFAIK, yes.

You did'nt ovewrite any existing pst?

Don't think so. Detailed history below.

 

[jp]

OK, Brian, thanks for replying, I will try. Not sure this is all relevant,
and I was trying to simplify it in my above posts, but since you wanted to
know *everything*...

I am doing this after having to do a reinstall of Windows XP on my c:
partition. (Which was a long story by itelf.) My documents were saved on
a different partition, (labeled g. But before the reinstall, I also made
a backup of key documents from g: onto a 4GB thumb drive and to be safe
backed *that* up onto another computer. After the reinstall, I installed
SP1, SP2, and all other recommended updates through Windows Update. Before
the reinstall, I had been running Office 2000. But, feeling it was too out
of date, I got a copy of Office 2003 (b/c it's for my home computer, I
didn't feel the need to upgrade to 2007) for use after the reinstall. I
added all my other software and waited a few days to make sure everything
seemed stable.

When I opened outlook for the first time, I was prompted to provide my
email account information, so I gave it my hotmail logon. (I was going to
add my other ISP's account after opening the .pst files, if necessary.)
I'm a little fuzzy here, but 95% sure I used File > Open > Outlook Data
File and browsed to the archive.pst on my g: partition first. I saw no
mail items in my "sent items" folder, didn't even see an "inbox" folder,
and thought that was strange. Went to Outlook Help, searched for "opening
data file" and saw I had made the right steps. Then saw the help item
titled "Convert a non-Unicode data file (.pst) to a Unicode data file
(.pst)" It sounded like it applied to my situation ("there is no automatic
way of converting an...outlook 97-02 .pst to a Unicode capable ....pst"),
so I followed its steps. First step, I renamed my old data file
outlook_backup.pst, used File > New > Outlook Data File and added a new
data file called outlook_unicode.pst.

Step 2 of that help item was using the dreaded Import Export wizard. So
I did File > Import and Export > another program or file > personal folder
file (pst). And pointed toward my archive.pst file on the g: partition. I
imported into my newly created outlook_unicode.pst. Same result, it all
looked empty. I tried the same Import/Export process with the g:
outlook.pst file, with the same results.

(I now know you've posted on this board that importing is a bad idea. But
I was just following the steps on the help file first. They were very
clear in directing me to use the I/E wizard, and I figuring if it came
right from the MS help file, it must be right, or at least a good first
step. I hadn't thought to try searching this forum first.)

Then after searching this forum, and finding the above linked post to
opening an office 2000 file in 2007, I followed the steps laid out there.
Specifically, I created a new mail profile, using Control Panel > Mail >
Show Profiles > Add... named it "new", checked "always use this profile"
and selected "new" from the pulldown. Added a new email account (this time
using my ISP logon instead of hotmail) Restarted Outlook, it downloaded
several days worth of mail from my ISP, when it was finished I went to File

Open > Outlook Data File and pointed to the g: archive.pst file again.

This time, I got my calendar, notes, and contacts items back, but no mail.
Tried g: outlook.pst too, same result.

At that point, I reread again the part where you wrote not to import from a
..pst, and I thought that might be my problem. So I closed the archive.pst
and outlook.pst folders while I was within my "new" Outlook profile. I
then inserted my thumb drive...which I had not touched at all as part of
this whole process...and opened the .pst files directly from that drive.
It still behaved the same way...no mail items, but plenty of contacts,
notes, etc.

That was when I posted my question to this board.

Before I posted this, I reconfirmed what I just told DL: the size of the
archive.pst and outlook.pst on the thumb drive currently stands at 87033 kb
and 55321 kb respectively. On the extra copy of the backup on the other
computer, the files are the same size exactly. I still have not touched
those, to keep at least one set of pst files pristine.

That's all I did, as far as I can remember. Hope I've laid it out OK, but
please ask if I can clarify. Thanks in advance for any help and for your
time in reading this novel.

 

[Brian Tillman]

OK, Brian, thanks for replying, I will try. Not sure this is all
relevant, and I was trying to simplify it in my above posts, but
since you wanted to know *everything*...

Thanks for the detail.

But before the
reinstall, I also made a backup of key documents from g: onto a 4GB
thumb drive and to be safe backed *that* up onto another computer.

How did you perform this "backup"? Was it simply a copy using Windows
Explorer? Was Outlook closed when you made the PST copies?

When I opened outlook for the first time, I was prompted to provide my
email account information, so I gave it my hotmail logon. (I was
going to add my other ISP's account after opening the .pst files, if
necessary.) I'm a little fuzzy here, but 95% sure I used File > Open
first. I saw no mail items in my "sent items" folder, didn't even
see an "inbox" folder, and thought that was strange.

Are you sure that your archive had anything in the Sent Items folder at one
time?

Went to Outlook
Help, searched for "opening data file" and saw I had made the right
steps. Then saw the help item titled "Convert a non-Unicode data
file (.pst) to a Unicode data file (.pst)" It sounded like it
applied to my situation ("there is no automatic way of converting
an...outlook 97-02 .pst to a Unicode capable ....pst"), so I followed
its steps. First step, I renamed my old data file
outlook_backup.pst, used File > New > Outlook Data File and added a
new data file called outlook_unicode.pst.

Step 2 of that help item was using the dreaded Import Export wizard.
So I did File > Import and Export > another program or file >
personal folder file (pst). And pointed toward my archive.pst file
on the g: partition. I imported into my newly created
outlook_unicode.pst. Same result, it all looked empty. I tried the
same Import/Export process with the g: outlook.pst file, with the
same results.

Instead of importing, I find it better to use copy to move things from the
old ANSI PST to the new Unicode PST.

Restarted Outlook, it downloaded several days worth of mail
from my ISP, when it was finished I went to File
This time, I got my calendar, notes, and contacts items back, but no
mail. Tried g: outlook.pst too, same result.

This puzzles me a great deal. If the data is in the PST, I don't know any
mechanism that would cause that data to be unavailable when opening that
PST. If you can see one folder's contents, you should be able to see the
contents of all folders, barring any filters.

At that point, I reread again the part where you wrote not to import
from a .pst, and I thought that might be my problem. So I closed the
archive.pst and outlook.pst folders while I was within my "new"
Outlook profile. I then inserted my thumb drive...which I had not
touched at all as part of this whole process...and opened the .pst
files directly from that drive. It still behaved the same way...no
mail items, but plenty of contacts, notes, etc.

Same head-scratching.

That was when I posted my question to this board.

Before I posted this, I reconfirmed what I just told DL: the size of
the archive.pst and outlook.pst on the thumb drive currently stands
at 87033 kb and 55321 kb respectively.

Try opening the PSTs directly on the thumb drives without copying them to
the hard drive first. What do you see then?