Outlook.pst file compatability between WIN98SE and WINXP

[Guest]

Recently purchased new systems with WinXP Pro and Office 2003. All previous
systems were Win98SE and Office 2000. Am not retiring or upgrading older
systems. Can I copy/import/export outlook.pst among systems or will the
difference in file systems make that impossible.

 

[Vince Averello [MVP-Outlook]]

You should be OK since you're going from OL2000 -> OL2003. The PST file
format changed in OL2003 but it can open/use PSTs from earlier versions.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Recently purchased new systems with WinXP Pro and Office 2003. All
previous systems were Win98SE and Office 2000. Am not retiring or
upgrading older systems. Can I copy/import/export outlook.pst among
systems or will the difference in file systems make that impossible.

There will be no problem at all. Whatever medium you use for transferring
the data will be compatible with both.

Things to keep in mind: 1) Outlook 2000 can't read the Outlook 2003 PST
format so you'll have to make sure you stick with the OL 2000-format PST,
which OL 2003 can read/write just fine. 2) Avoid export/import. There is
absolutely no reason to every use it when moving a PST between Outlook
instances. Just make sure Outloko is closed when you copy the PST. 3) If
you use a CD to transfer, you'll have to copy the PST from CD to the hard
drive on the destination machine and remove the read-only attribute it will
have acquired. 4) Never overwrite a PST of the same name. If it's loaded in
a profile you'll corrupt the profile if you do.

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