Recovery from hostile express takeover

[Brian RN]

Hello,
I hope that someone is able to help me. I was trying to open an old Outlook
Express database file. To do this I had to reinstall Outlook Express. I did
this via the control panel.
I was able to view the old emails successfully. However, When I went to use
the Outlook 2003 that I have on my system, the interface was changed and the
only emails that were there were my old ones from express. How can I recover
my current emails and revert Outlook 2003 back to the way it was.

I run a WinXP SP2 system.\
Unfortunately the system restore option was disabled.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Gordon]

Hello,
I hope that someone is able to help me. I was trying to open an old
Outlook
Express database file. To do this I had to reinstall Outlook Express. I
did
this via the control panel.
I was able to view the old emails successfully. However, When I went to
use
the Outlook 2003 that I have on my system, the interface was changed and
the
only emails that were there were my old ones from express. How can I
recover
my current emails and revert Outlook 2003 back to the way it was.

I run a WinXP SP2 system.\
Unfortunately the system restore option was disabled.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Umm several points here. Firstly you cannot physically uninstall OE from
Windows XP so it was there all the time. All you did in Control panel was to
re-enable menu access to it.
Secondly, OE is a COMPLETELY different program to Outlook, (although they
share some files) and as such should not have interfered with Outlook at
all.
How do you mean "the interface was changed"? What shows when you do
help-about?

 

[Brian RN]

Umm several points here. Firstly you cannot physically uninstall OE from
Windows XP so it was there all the time. All you did in Control panel was to
re-enable menu access to it.
Secondly, OE is a COMPLETELY different program to Outlook, (although they
share some files) and as such should not have interfered with Outlook at
all.
How do you mean "the interface was changed"? What shows when you do
help-about?

What I mean by changed is, The preview pane was gone when I reopened
Outlook. The Inbox that it used now only has the old emails that were in OE.
None of the emails from the last two years are anywhere to be found. I opened
the Outlook.pst file after finding it in explorer. It only contains the old
stuff. My current address book is gone. Current emails, gone. GUI settings
changed.

Is that what you mean? The Help/about info just says Outlook 2003 etc. I
don't know what you are looking for here.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Brian RN]

What I mean by changed is, The preview pane was gone when I reopened
Outlook. The Inbox that it used now only has the old emails that were in OE.
None of the emails from the last two years are anywhere to be found. I opened
the Outlook.pst file after finding it in explorer. It only contains the old
stuff. My current address book is gone. Current emails, gone. GUI settings
changed.

Is that what you mean? The Help/about info just says Outlook 2003 etc. I
don't know what you are looking for here.

Thanks for your help.

Also, All of the Account settings are gone. The only ones there are two
years old.
Yikes.

 

[Gordon]

What I mean by changed is, The preview pane was gone when I reopened
Outlook. The Inbox that it used now only has the old emails that were in
OE.
None of the emails from the last two years are anywhere to be found. I
opened
the Outlook.pst file after finding it in explorer. It only contains the
old
stuff. My current address book is gone. Current emails, gone. GUI settings
changed.

Is that what you mean? The Help/about info just says Outlook 2003 etc. I
don't know what you are looking for here.

Thanks for your help.

Well I have NEVER in over ten years using Outlook and OE together heard of
this happening. For a start, outlook uses a completely different file system
to OE and in a completely different location. Have you tried searching for
pst files to see if the original is there?

 

[Gordon]

Also, All of the Account settings are gone. The only ones there are two
years old.
Yikes.

Try a System restore to a point before you "re-enabled" OE....

 

[Brian RN]

Well I have NEVER in over ten years using Outlook and OE together heard of
this happening. For a start, outlook uses a completely different file system
to OE and in a completely different location. Have you tried searching for
pst files to see if the original is there?

Yes, I tried but the only pst files that are there open to the old emails.
not the current.

 

[Brian RN]

AHHH!!!!. I AM A MORON!!.
What the OE installation did was change the email program associated wit the
email button in my "start" button tree. I completely forgot that I had
changed to Thunderbird. It is so similar to Outlook. And I used Outlook for
so long. I changed to back and now have no issue.

I am so sorry that I took your valuable time.
I will now ashamedly slink away.

Brian RN

 

[Gordon]

AHHH!!!!. I AM A MORON!!.
What the OE installation did was change the email program associated wit
the
email button in my "start" button tree. I completely forgot that I had
changed to Thunderbird. It is so similar to Outlook. And I used Outlook
for
so long. I changed to back and now have no issue.

I am so sorry that I took your valuable time.
I will now ashamedly slink away.

Brian RN

<cough> <cough> ;-)

 

[VanguardLH]

What I mean by changed is, The preview pane was gone when I reopened
Outlook.

Installing OE, if that is what you really did, would not affect
Outlook since they do NOT share the same program files. Something
ELSE you did during the "install" of OE screwed up the configuration
of Outlook.

The Inbox that it used now only has the old emails that were in OE.

Outlook and Outlook Express do NOT share message stores. Outlook uses
a .pst file. Outlook Express uses .dbx files, one for each folder
shown in its message store tree. These files are in different paths.

Most likely is that Outlook is configured, by default, to retrieve
e-mails and then delete them from your mailbox on the mail server.
Outlook Express might be configured to leave messages on the mail
server. So when you went back into Outlook then the only *new*
e-mails there were the same one that you had Outlook Express download
but LEAVE up on the mail server.

None of the emails from the last two years are anywhere to be found.
I opened
the Outlook.pst file after finding it in explorer. It only contains
the old
stuff.

Isn't the "old stuff" what you are trying to retrieve?

My current address book is gone.

There is no address book in Outlook (as there is a .wab file for
Outlook Express). The Outlook Address Book (OAB) in Outlook is a
container that shows a compilation of contact-type folders whose
property is configured to have their records shown in the OAB
container. You definitely did a lot more than just "install" Outlook
Express. You will have to right-click on the contact-type folders in
Outlook and under the OAB tab enable the checkbox to include it in the
OAB container.

Current emails, gone.

You say that you only saw the new e-mails in Outlook. You then said
you found the old .pst file and all your old stuff was there. So if
you can see old and new stuff, just what is missing?

GUI settings changed.

Yeah, you didn't just reinstall Outlook Express. Somehow you trashed
your install of Outlook. You could try to use the Help->Repair menu
or uninstall and reinstall Outlook.

So just how did you uninstall Outlook Express before? And just how
did you reinstall Outlook Express now?