Problem with opening OL98 .PST in OL2003

[Guest]

I bought a new computer with Windows XP and Outlook 2003. I I created a file
with personal folders "backup.pst" in Outlook 98. I copied this file into my
new computer and tried to open it in Outlook 2003. Outlook 2003 does not
recognize the file and gives me the message that "this file is not a personal
folder file". I run scanpst.exe program to repair the file. I got the message
"Inbox Repair Tool does not recognize the file backup.pst. No information can
be recovered". I tried to convert the file from non-unicode format into
unicode format by creating personal file in Outlook 2003 and importing the
old file into this. I got the same old message "This file is not a personal
folder file". I have no problem opening the file in Outlook 98 so the file is
definitely not corrupted. I don't know what else to do except mailing to
myself all my approx. 200 messages or keep the old computer forever to
preserve my old mail. If somebody has a better idea please let me know.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I bought a new computer with Windows XP and Outlook 2003. I I
created a file with personal folders "backup.pst" in Outlook 98. I
copied this file into my new computer

How? And was Outlook closed when you did the copy?

and tried to open it in Outlook
2003. Outlook 2003 does not recognize the file and gives me the
message that "this file is not a personal folder file". I run
scanpst.exe program to repair the file. I got the message "Inbox
Repair Tool does not recognize the file backup.pst. No information
can be recovered". I tried to convert the file from non-unicode
format into unicode format by creating personal file in Outlook 2003
and importing the old file into this. I got the same old message
"This file is not a personal folder file". I have no problem opening
the file in Outlook 98 so the file is definitely not corrupted.

If you can still open the file in OL 98, it should be readable by OL 2003

I don't know what else to do except mailing to myself all my approx.
200 messages or keep the old computer forever to preserve my old
mail.

Another thing to try is to install the old PC's disk in the new PC and try
to open the PST directly from that HD.

 

[Guest]

Hi Brian,
Thanks for responding.
You asked me how I copied the file from the old computer to the new one.
I copied the .pst file from the old computer by burning it on CD and copying
it from CD into hard drive of new PC. Regarding your advice to install old
hard drive to new PC. I am not too savy on computer hardware. I would not
know how to do this. I can use USB Thumb drive to move the file from one
computer to another but why is it better than burning CD?

I noticed by searching internet that lot's of people have the same problem.
I am surprised that Microsoft does not know about. I guess nobody wants to
pay 38 dollars per event to let them know. It is not addressed on OL'03
troubleshooting site.

Stefania

 

[Brian Tillman]

I copied the .pst file from the old computer by burning it on CD and
copying it from CD into hard drive of new PC.

And did you then remove the read-only attribute? You must.

Regarding your advice
to install old hard drive to new PC. I am not too savy on computer
hardware. I would not know how to do this. I can use USB Thumb drive
to move the file from one computer to another but why is it better
than burning CD?

Because the thumb drive is seen as a read/write device while a CD is a
read-only device.

I noticed by searching internet that lot's of people have the same
problem. I am surprised that Microsoft does not know about.

They do know about it.

 

[Guest]

Hi Brian,

I did remove read only attribute after copying it into a hard drive of my
new computer. If I had read-only attribute (I just tried it) I get the
message "You don't have permission to access the file backup.pst". So this is
not the case. What else could be wrong?

Thanks,

Stefania

 

[Brian Tillman]

I did remove read only attribute after copying it into a hard drive
of my new computer.

You've done what you could, as far as I can tell. If I were in your shoes
and still had OL 98 running and able to read a PST, I'd try the process over
again, making sure OL 98 is closed (checking Task Manager to verify the
OUTLOOK.EXE process is gone). It appears that something in the copy process
trashed the PST beyond repair.

 

[Guest]

Hi Brian,

I still don't believe my luck. I copied my old messages using flash drive
and it worked OK. I can open it in OL'03. Why, burning it on CD (repeatedly
with different files) would corrupt it? I still don't understand it. I use
this CD writer all the time. Maybe this is something to do with CD writer
drivers incompatibility on Windows 98SE and Windows XP. Although I copied
also bunch of other files by burning CD (.doc, jpg, pdf, practically the
whole hard drive with data) and I had no problems with opening them. Anyway,
my problem is solved and I am very happy about it.

Thank you for your assistance.