Outlook Help Needed!!! Need to Recover Contacts and Email.

[Hexman]

Hi All,

I've had some problems with flaky hardware (either RAM, CPU or MB).
Well the other night the system froze on me and when I was finally
able to reboot Outlook wouldn't start. Since many programs were
affected (the registry was corrupt and a recover didn't work), I got a
new hard disk and started from scratch to rebuild my system. Also
changed CPU.

It is an XP Pro machine with Outlook 2003 (just as the previous
configuration). Now I want to import my contacts, emails, etc. into
the newly created sytems. I can't locate any .PST files on the old
drive. I've unhid files and folder, system files and folders and
still can't find them.

I thought they were normally placed in "C:\Documents and
Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook".
That's where they reside on the new drive. Is it a file other than
..PST that I should be looking for?

Any thoughts on how to recover??? I do have a backup of the drive on
DVD but it is older than I'd like to use.

Thanks,

Hexman

 

[Guest]

I would say the simplest thing to do is make sure that after unhiding files
and folders and making sure you can see file extensions is to do a search for
*.pst.

 

[Hexman]

That's where they are located by default, but only you can know if that's
the location you used, since there's nothing magic about that location. Did
you also elect to show extensions for known file types so that if you saw a
file whose extension is .pst that Explorer will show that extension?

Yes I did. In the directory I found:

Outlook.srs
Outlook.NK2
Offitems.log
Outcmd.dat
Outlook.xml

but no .PST file. They were dated and timed at about the time of the
lockup.

It looks as if I'm hosed. I only have one more thought. Right now
I'm using my old drive as a slave. Maybe the .PST file was somehow
deleted and placed in the recycle folder. If I change the drive back
to a single master, the recycle bin will be intact and I can locate it
there. I have Norton Utilities. I have tried a file recovery
program, GetDataBack for NTFS by Runtime Software without finding a
..PST file.


Thanks,

Hexman

 

[Hexman]

I would say the simplest thing to do is make sure that after unhiding files
and folders and making sure you can see file extensions is to do a search for
*.pst.

Kathleen,

Yes I did. In the directory I found:

Outlook.srs
Outlook.NK2
Offitems.log
Outcmd.dat
Outlook.xml

but no .PST file. They were dated and timed at about the time of the
lockup.

It looks as if I'm hosed. I only have one more thought. Right now
I'm using my old drive as a slave. Maybe the .PST file was somehow
deleted and placed in the recycle folder. If I change the drive back
to a single master, the recycle bin will be intact and I can locate it
there. I have Norton Utilities. I have tried a file recovery
program, GetDataBack for NTFS by Runtime Software without finding a
..PST file.

Any other thoughts on recovery would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Hexman

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Is there any chance that you archived your .pst file recently? Except for
contacts, that archive.pst file should get you up and running.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Hexman asked:

| Hi All,
|
| I've had some problems with flaky hardware (either RAM, CPU or MB).
| Well the other night the system froze on me and when I was finally
| able to reboot Outlook wouldn't start. Since many programs were
| affected (the registry was corrupt and a recover didn't work), I got a
| new hard disk and started from scratch to rebuild my system. Also
| changed CPU.
|
| It is an XP Pro machine with Outlook 2003 (just as the previous
| configuration). Now I want to import my contacts, emails, etc. into
| the newly created sytems. I can't locate any .PST files on the old
| drive. I've unhid files and folder, system files and folders and
| still can't find them.
|
| I thought they were normally placed in "C:\Documents and
| Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook".
| That's where they reside on the new drive. Is it a file other than
| .PST that I should be looking for?
|
| Any thoughts on how to recover??? I do have a backup of the drive on
| DVD but it is older than I'd like to use.
|
| Thanks,
|
| Hexman

 

[Hexman]

Nope. Looks like I'll just have to resort to my latest backup.

(I will bcakup more frequently!
(I will bcakup more frequently!
(I will bcakup more frequently!


Hexman

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

I find using Task Scheduler to perform dreary tasks like backups works
wonders.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Hexman asked:

| Nope. Looks like I'll just have to resort to my latest backup.
|
| (I will bcakup more frequently!
| (I will bcakup more frequently!
| (I will bcakup more frequently!
|
|
| Hexman
|
| On Fri, 12 May 2006 20:30:11 -0700, "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
|
|| Is there any chance that you archived your .pst file recently?
|| Except for contacts, that archive.pst file should get you up and
|| running.
||
|| --?
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
|| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
|| reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, Hexman asked:
||
||| Hi All,
|||
||| I've had some problems with flaky hardware (either RAM, CPU or MB).
||| Well the other night the system froze on me and when I was finally
||| able to reboot Outlook wouldn't start. Since many programs were
||| affected (the registry was corrupt and a recover didn't work), I
||| got a new hard disk and started from scratch to rebuild my system.
||| Also changed CPU.
|||
||| It is an XP Pro machine with Outlook 2003 (just as the previous
||| configuration). Now I want to import my contacts, emails, etc. into
||| the newly created sytems. I can't locate any .PST files on the old
||| drive. I've unhid files and folder, system files and folders and
||| still can't find them.
|||
||| I thought they were normally placed in "C:\Documents and
||| Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application
||| Data\Microsoft\Outlook". That's where they reside on the new drive.
||| Is it a file other than .PST that I should be looking for?
|||
||| Any thoughts on how to recover??? I do have a backup of the drive
||| on DVD but it is older than I'd like to use.
|||
||| Thanks,
|||
||| Hexman

 

[Brian Tillman]

Yes I did. In the directory I found:

Outlook.srs
Outlook.NK2
Offitems.log
Outcmd.dat
Outlook.xml

but no .PST file.

That's the wrong folder. Look in %UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

 

[Hexman]

Thanks for the correction. No .pst file in there also.

Oh, well. I'll just get the old backup, import and audit.

Hexman