Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007

[newbie]

Just bought a new PC with Outlook 2007 preinstalled. My old PC has Outlook
2003. What is the proper way to move all my messages, contacts, archives,
rules, etc. from 2003 to 2007?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Brian Tillman]

Just bought a new PC with Outlook 2007 preinstalled. My old PC has
Outlook 2003. What is the proper way to move all my messages,
contacts, archives, rules, etc. from 2003 to 2007?

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm

 

[Gordon]

Just bought a new PC with Outlook 2007 preinstalled. My old PC has
Outlook 2003. What is the proper way to move all my messages, contacts,
archives, rules, etc. from 2003 to 2007?

Thanks in advance!

For email, contacts, archives, this posted almost on a daily basis:

On Old Computer:
Close Outlook.
Search for, and copy the pst file. Default name and location are:
C:\Documents and Settings\{Your User Name here}\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst. (You may have to enable Hidden and
System files in your search)

On the New computer:
Copy the pst file to your HDD. Do NOT overwrite any existing file. Remove
any read-only attribute. (Right-Click-Properties).
Open Outlook.
Do File-Open-Outlook Data File and navigate to where you copied the file.

You then have two alternatives.
1. Drag and drop the data from the old file to the new
or,
2. If you have a large amount of data then you can set the old file as the
Default Delivery location and Outlook will just carry on using that file.
(Control Panel-Mail-Data File)

more info here:

http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
http://www.howto-outlook.com/Howto/backupandrestore.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx


I'm not sure about rules.....

 

[newbie]

Thank you.

One more thing, in the past, I've had problems with the address book. When
I reinstalled Outlook 2003 after reformatting my hard disk, I was able to
see the contacts but the address book was somehow missing. Also, when I
copied the .pst files from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007's default location,
I got duplicate messages and no addresses. I was no longer able to click on
the "To:" box to select an addressee. After hours on tinkering, a friend
bailed me out by doing something with the profiles but I do not know exactly
how he fixed the dups and restored the address book.

 

[Gordon]

Thank you.

One more thing, in the past, I've had problems with the address book.
When I reinstalled Outlook 2003 after reformatting my hard disk, I was
able to see the contacts but the address book was somehow missing. Also,
when I copied the .pst files from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007's default
location,

You should NEVER copy a pst file to the default location unless it has a
unique name other than "Outlook.pst".

 

[newbie]

That's precisely why I started this thread.

I had renamed the backup file OutlookBak.pst.
Copied it to the default location.
Renamed Outlook.pst to OutlookOld.pst.
Renamed OutlookBak.pst to Outlook.pst.
Closed Outlook.
Launched Outlook and got dups and no addresses in the address book.

I know that this sounds easy to expert users but I have reinstalled outlook
only once before and it cost me hours of frustration. Just trying to dot
all my "i"s and cross all my "t"s this time around before I start fooling
around with this new Outlook 2007.

 

[Gordon]

That's precisely why I started this thread.

I had renamed the backup file OutlookBak.pst.
Copied it to the default location.
Renamed Outlook.pst to OutlookOld.pst.
Renamed OutlookBak.pst to Outlook.pst.
Closed Outlook.
Launched Outlook and got dups and no addresses in the address book.

By doing all that renaming you very likely corrupted the mail profile.
In Control Pane-Mail, create a new Profile.
Then, if you still have access to the original backup file, copy it to your
HDD, (My Documents is a good place) then open the new Outlook profile and do
File-Open-Outlook Data File.
You then have two choices - either copy the data from the backup pst file to
the new pst file, or set the backup file as your default delivery location,
again via control panel-Mail.

None of this would have been necessary if you'd done even a modicum of
research - the correct method of transferring data from one Outlook to
another is posted in the Outlook groups on a daily basis......

 

[newbie]

Thank you for the much appreciated information.

The lecture was not appreciated. If indeed this information is posted on a
daily basis, do you think perhaps it gets lost in the clutter? I did try to
find it and after searching for it and finding posts about backing up and
restoring to the same version and other similar posts, I asked the question.
I hesitated posting for fear of the arrogance one is so commonly subjected
to in these newsgroups.

I don't understand why Microsoft seems to not realize that people change
computers every few years. Providing a simple-to-use tool that will perform
this task would be so easy. If Microsoft customers have to run to the
forums on a daily basis to do this, the business case for providing a tool
should be self-evident.