Outlook error message says it cant find my PAB

[Guest]

Outlook 2003
I was probably being too clever by half. I wanted to save my mailbox.PAB,
**.WAB and Outlook.PST files to a safe backup location on DriveHQ (a
web-based storage area). I realized later that I seem to have removed them
from my hard drive. I re-installed them on my HD from DriveHQ in what I
think are the appropriate locations, but now when I try to open Outlook I
receive an error message that my personal address book can't be opened
because it's either not accessible or not a personal address book.

I re-installed my mailbox.PAB & **.WAB files in three locations, just to be
on the safe side:

1) Documents & Settings/My Name/Application Data/Microsoft/Address Book
2) Documents & Settings/My Name/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook
3) Documents & Settings/My Name/Local Settings/Application
Data/Microsoft/Outlook

My Outlook.PST is only in the third location.

Any suggestions?

GG

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Outlook has never used a WAB. It has not used a PAB in nearly a decade. Why
did you include these files?

If indeed you managed to remove your PST file, you cannot restore it by
simply plopping it down into its old location. Just open it in Outlook.

 

[Guest]

Well now I'm thoroughly confused. I thought the WAB files were what
contained my Outlook address book. Perhaps these exist because they were
carried over when I switched from a previous version of Windows to XP. And
the PAB certainly exists on my HD, but perhaps for the same reason. I don't
know.

I didn't move the PST file because it's far too big for that at 1,674,513 KB
(I only have CDs to back up to.) It's never moved from Documents &
Settings/My Name/Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook. I can't
open Outlook because of the error message I mentioned in my first postm
somI'm still stymied.

Thanks for any additional help.
Gregg

Outlook has never used a WAB. It has not used a PAB in nearly a decade. Why
did you include these files?

If indeed you managed to remove your PST file, you cannot restore it by
simply plopping it down into its old location. Just open it in Outlook.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Outlook 2003
I was probably being too clever by half. I wanted to save my mailbox.PAB,
**.WAB and Outlook.PST files to a safe backup location on DriveHQ (a
web-based storage area). I realized later that I seem to have removed
them
from my hard drive. I re-installed them on my HD from DriveHQ in what I
think are the appropriate locations, but now when I try to open Outlook I
receive an error message that my personal address book can't be opened
because it's either not accessible or not a personal address book.

I re-installed my mailbox.PAB & **.WAB files in three locations, just to
be
on the safe side:

1) Documents & Settings/My Name/Application Data/Microsoft/Address Book
2) Documents & Settings/My Name/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook
3) Documents & Settings/My Name/Local Settings/Application
Data/Microsoft/Outlook

My Outlook.PST is only in the third location.

Any suggestions?

GG

 

[Brian Tillman]

Well now I'm thoroughly confused. I thought the WAB files were what
contained my Outlook address book.

The WAB is the Windows Address Book and is used by Outlook Express, not
Outlook. Outlook uses your Contacts folder. The Outlook Address Book is a
service in Outlook that allows you to map contact names to their addresses
ising the Contacts folder. It is this interface that Outlook uses now.
However, it can import an old PAB if you have it. Apparently you're still
referencing the Personal Address Book service in the mail profile. In
Control Panel, start the Mail applet and click E-mail Accounts. Select
"View or change existing address books or directories" and click Next. If
you see "Personal Address Book", select it and click Remove. Click OK or
Finish, as appropriate, until you're back to Control Panel. CLose that as
well. Then start Outlook.

If you want to import the PAB (although it's probably unneeded), you can
with FIle>Import and Export>Import from another program or file>Next.
Select "Personal Address Book", click Next, browse to it, select it, click
OK, select the duplicate handling you want, and click Next, then Finish.

 

[Guest]

Brian

Thanks. Here's a sticky point. In Control Panel, the Mail applet will not
let me enter E-mail Accounts or Data Files. Nothing happens when I click on
those. I can, however, open Show Profiles. Outlook is listed as the only
profile. When clicking on that, I also can't open E-mail Accounts or Data
Files in the next window.

Should I delete the Outlook profile and create another?

Or at this point, should I re-install Outlook from the original OS disk that
came with my computer? I've saved my Outlook.PST file in another location on
my HD. I'm assuming that all my addresses, folders, calenadar and tasks oare
located in this file?

And I think youlre correct, that in importing my Outlook Express address
book into Outlook 2003 two years ago or so, I somehow bypassed the right way
to do this & I'm still using the PAB and/or WAB files from Outlook Express.

Or should I go to Properties on my mailbox.PAB or **.WAB files and tell them
to Open With Outlook? The problem with this last option, is that when I went
to Properties for these files, I can't find Outlook given the list of files
for the mailbox.PAB file. Is Outlook a hidden file that won't be listed
here? For the **.WAB file, Properties has it listed to open with Address
Book.

I don't undertand your last suggestion. When you say import the PAB with
FIle>Import and Export>Import from another program, what do you mean by
"another program?"

Thanks for your help

Gregg

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks. Here's a sticky point. In Control Panel, the Mail applet
will not let me enter E-mail Accounts or Data Files. Nothing happens
when I click on those. I can, however, open Show Profiles. Outlook
is listed as the only profile. When clicking on that, I also can't
open E-mail Accounts or Data Files in the next window.

Should I delete the Outlook profile and create another?

Iff the Add button is available, I'd start by adding a new profile. You can
always deleet the old one when you're happy with the new one.

Or at this point, should I re-install Outlook from the original OS
disk that came with my computer? I've saved my Outlook.PST file in
another location on my HD. I'm assuming that all my addresses,
folders, calenadar and tasks oare located in this file?

I don't think you'll benefit from a reinstall. If the new profile doesn't
work, use the existing profile and in Outlook click Help>Detect and Repair.

Or should I go to Properties on my mailbox.PAB or **.WAB files and
tell them to Open With Outlook? The problem with this last option,
is that when I went to Properties for these files, I can't find
Outlook given the list of files for the mailbox.PAB file. Is Outlook
a hidden file that won't be listed here? For the **.WAB file,
Properties has it listed to open with Address Book.

You can't open a WAB with Outlook, period. Forget about the WAB. It's not
a factor at all.

I don't undertand your last suggestion. When you say import the PAB
with FIle>Import and Export>Import from another program, what do you
mean by "another program?"

Did you try to follow the instructions? If you had you'd see that "Import
from another file or program" is one of the choices you have.

 

[Guest]

Brian

Thanks again. Other problems have occurred.

I created a new profile in Control Panel with the Mail applet. After
creating this, I clicked on Properties, but I can’t enter either the E-mail
Accounts or Data Files areas. Nothing happens.

I then saved this new profile and opend Outlook with it. I immediately got
a large window error message:
Internet Explorer Script Error
An error has occurred in the script on this page.
Line: 298
Char: 1
Error: Class not registered
Code: 0
URL: Outlook: today

I clicked on the opetion to continue running scripts on this page.

A raw, unused version of Outlook opened (none of my folders, addresses,
calendar settings,etc).

I clicked on File>New>Outlook Data file and received the error message: The
operation failed.

I clicked on File>Data Management and received the error message: The
operation failed.

I clicked on File>Import & Export and received the error message: The
operation failed.

I clicked on New to try to send an email and received the error message: The
operation failed.

I clicked on Help>Detect and Repair and the window asked for me to install
the CD with MS Office Porfessional Edition 2003. I don’t have such a disk
from when I purchased my computer. I have the Dell OS disk, Reinstallation
CD with MS Windows XP Home Edition, but inserting this gave an error message
reading that MS Office Porfessional Edition 2003 couldn’t be found and that I
should try to find a file named PRO11N.MSI to install MS Office Porfessional
Edition 2003. I did a Search on my HD & Local Disk C for this file, but it
didn't turn up.

Forgive me for being dense, but I still don’t understand your advice to
“import the PAB with File>Import and Export>Import from another program.†I
assume you mean to do this from within Outlook, but as I wrote above, that
won’t work & I get an error massage: The operation failed.

I still can’t enter Outlook with the original profile. Only the new one.

Thanks again
Gregg

 

[Brian Tillman]

install the CD with MS Office Porfessional Edition 2003. I don’t
have such a disk from when I purchased my computer. I have the Dell
OS disk, Reinstallation CD with MS Windows XP Home Edition, but
inserting this gave an error message reading that MS Office
Porfessional Edition 2003 couldn’t be found and that I should try to
find a file named PRO11N.MSI to install MS Office Porfessional
Edition 2003. I did a Search on my HD & Local Disk C for this file,
but it didn't turn up.

I've had several Dell PCs and Dell has always sent me on CD the software
that came preinstalled or provided a way for me to generate my own. Were I
in your shoes, I'd jump on the Dell support forums and ask there if there's
a way to get install disks. Failing that, I'd buy some from eBay.

 

[Guest]

Well, the only CD I have is the one titled "Dell OS disk, Reinstallation CD
with MS Windows XP Home Edition". Outlook Detect and Repair couldn't find
what it wanted on there. But perhaps it's embedded deeply in there, jst the
same?

My wife bought a Dell laptop recently and she just handed me the MS Office
Small Business Editioin 2003 CDs. Maybe they'll work. I guess it's worth a
try.

Gregg

 

[Brian Tillman]

My wife bought a Dell laptop recently and she just handed me the MS
Office Small Business Editioin 2003 CDs. Maybe they'll work. I
guess it's worth a try.

The PSI file for that version will not be named PRO11N.MSI

 

[Guest]

Yes, I realized that & of course it didn't work. I called Dell Software
Support. They told me that my warranty was over and that for $99 they'd
"100%" fix my problem. They also said that their records show that they
never sent me the original MS Office Pro Edition 2003 CDs. They said I
didn't ask for them when I bought the computer, so they didn't send them. --
Aren’t they lovely?

Three things occurred to me:

1) Could I go into the Restore section of XP and restore my PC to a date
before this problem occurred?

2) Could I install MS Office Small Business Edition 2003 (the CD I have in
hand) & access my PST files and get going? I imagine the programs are pretty
similar, with only a few things different.

3) A friend told me to download Eudora and import my Outlook files into that
program as a temporary step to get working with all my Outlook files,
folders, etc. However, each time I tried the Import Advance feature on
Eudora to import my PST files, an error occurred in Eudora. I don’t know if
this is because my Outlook 2003 is not working or damaged or if my PST files
are damaged. I have two PST files: Outlook. PST file (the very large one)
and my Archive.PST file. I wasn’t sure which of these to import, although
the size alone tells me that all the data I want is on the large file.

Thanks again
Gregg

 

[Brian Tillman]

The PSI file for that version will not be named PRO11N.MSI

The MSI file for that version...

 

[Brian Tillman]

Three things occurred to me:

1) Could I go into the Restore section of XP and restore my PC to a
date before this problem occurred?

You could try, but I suspect it won't work.

2) Could I install MS Office Small Business Edition 2003 (the CD I
have in hand) & access my PST files and get going? I imagine the
programs are pretty similar, with only a few things different.

You don't have a license for that product.

3) A friend told me to download Eudora and import my Outlook files
into that program as a temporary step to get working with all my
Outlook files, folders, etc. However, each time I tried the Import
Advance feature on Eudora to import my PST files, an error occurred
in Eudora. I don’t know if this is because my Outlook 2003 is not
working or damaged or if my PST files are damaged. I have two PST
files: Outlook. PST file (the very large one) and my Archive.PST
file. I wasn’t sure which of these to import, although the size
alone tells me that all the data I want is on the large file.

I don't know much about Eudora, but you may be able to import your messages
into Outlook Express (FiIle>Import>Messages>Microsoft Outlook) temporarily.
Personally, I'd pay $120 and buy a retail copy of Office 2003 Student and
Teachers Edition (provided you or anyone in your family has an association
with education to satisfy the EULA) or, barring that, pay $99 to Dell to get
the CDs.

 

[Guest]

You're right about Restore. The last restore point is listed as 6/11/01.
Too long ago.

Egg on my face. In an area of my cluttered home office I found the
unopened, sealed pack of MS Office Pro Business Edition 2003. I loaded the
disk and ran it in Outlook's Help>Detect & Repair window. It didn't do the
trick. An error message read that I had to reinstall or run Regsvr32.exe
Vbscript.dll and that the form cache is not valid for FORMCACHE.DAT.

I found the Regsvr32.exe and Vbscript.dll files each in several places by
doing a search. They were each listed in a C:I386 folder, a Cache folder and
a System 32 folder. All had similar sizes and similar version numbers, but
differing modificatioin dates. Some of thse dates were old, some were
today's date. But I don't know how to run or re-install them or which to
choose.

I assume that at this point I should simply re-install Office and try to get
it to use my PST files through File>Import.

Gregg

 

[Brian Tillman]

Egg on my face. In an area of my cluttered home office I found the
unopened, sealed pack of MS Office Pro Business Edition 2003. I
loaded the disk and ran it in Outlook's Help>Detect & Repair window.
It didn't do the trick. An error message read that I had to
reinstall or run Regsvr32.exe Vbscript.dll and that the form cache is
not valid for FORMCACHE.DAT.

Click Start>Run and enter

regsvr32 vbscript.dll

in the Open field. Click OK.

The forms cache problem may be covered here:
http://www.outlookcode.com/d/formscache.htm

I found the Regsvr32.exe and Vbscript.dll files each in several
places by doing a search. They were each listed in a C:I386 folder,

That's your installation folder from the original install of Windows by the
factory. If you every add Windows components, they'll come from here.

I assume that at this point I should simply re-install Office and try
to get it to use my PST files through File>Import.

You can uninstall and reinstall if you want and you shouldn't lose any data.
To be safe, back up your PST.
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm

Never export to or import from a PST. It's unnecessary. The description on
that web page will tell you how to reuse the PST.

 

[Guest]

Many thanks for all your help. My problems are all solved.
besr
G Glaser