Restoring outlook.pst help (actually hell!!)

[Paul Steven]

I had to reformat my Vista PC yesterday and I sensibly made a copy of my
Outlook.pst file that was located in
c:\users\paul\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook

Anyway I reinstalled Outlook 2007 and then copied this Outlook.pst file
into the same location and when I open Outlook, I do not see any emails
from the last 8 months - only those prior to that.

I am desparate for help to determine if I can get back my recent
emails.

It may be useful to know that when I did have it up and running before
the reformat, I had 2 folders named "Inbox", one that I was using for
my current sending and receiving of emails and another that I recall
was created when I restored a previous backup.

It looks like it has just restored the old "Inbox" and its subfolders.

I have tried importing the pst file via Outlook with no success
either.

Please can anyone tell me if there is a solution to get back my last 8
months of emails. The Outlook.pst file is about 3gb so obviously
contains a lot of data. Is it likely that they are contained in the
Outlook.pst file that I backed up and are just not being read in
again?

Thanks in advance

Paul

 

[Kathleen Orland]

You normally have two PST files, one that contains your archived mails and
one that is your current PST. Usually, when neither has been renamed, the
default names are archive.pst and outlook.pst. The outlook.pst file should
contain what's current, however Outlook must be closed when you make the
copy.

In order to open your PST file, you would normally click on File > Open and
then browse to your PST file location. Highlight the correct PST file to
open it.

Here is a comprehensive and simple method for backing up and restoring your
PST files:

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

In addition, if you have verified that you've followed all of the above
steps and are using the correct PST file, please make sure your view is not
filtered. View > Current View > Messages.

 

[Gordon]

I had to reformat my Vista PC yesterday and I sensibly made a copy of my
Outlook.pst file that was located in
c:\users\paul\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook

Anyway I reinstalled Outlook 2007 and then copied this Outlook.pst file
into the same location and when I open Outlook, I do not see any emails
from the last 8 months - only those prior to that.

Sounds like you only made a copy of the Archive file, not the current one.
Unless you have a backup, I'm afraid it's gone.

 

[Paul Steven]

Thank you for the replies.

Yes it does now look like I only made a copy of the archive which wa
callled Outlook.pst and was located i
c:\users\paul\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook

I did copy the entire contents of this outlook folder however ther
does not appear to be any other files with a 2009 date.

I therefore conclude that the current emails were stored somewher
else. I do a daily backup to an external hard drive of everything i
c:\users\paul however when I do a search for any *.pst files, none ca
be found - so I assume my backup doesn't copy hidden folders an
files.

I tried to use some recovery software (recover my files to find an
files pre-format however as I deleted the partitions and formatte
using Vista, I think it must have wiped everything as there appears t
be no trace of any files from before I re-installed Vista so I may hav
to conclude I have lost the emails for good.

Will definitely look into a safer option for my emails now as they ar
such an important part of my business.

Thanks

Paul

;333609']"Paul Steven" (e-mail address removed) wrote i
message

I had to reformat my Vista PC yesterday and I sensibly made a copy o
my
Outlook.pst file that was located in
c:\users\paul\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook

Anyway I reinstalled Outlook 2007 and then copied this Outlook.ps
file
into the same location and when I open Outlook, I do not see an
emails
from the last 8 months - only those prior to that.-

Sounds like you only made a copy of the Archive file, not the curren
one.
Unless you have a backup, I'm afraid it's gone

 

[Kathleen Orland]

Here's excellent step by step instructions on backing up and restoring your
PST file:

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

The entire website should answer virtually every one of your basic Outlook
questions. It's an excellent resource.

Thank you for the replies.

Yes it does now look like I only made a copy of the archive which was
callled Outlook.pst and was located in
c:\users\paul\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook

I did copy the entire contents of this outlook folder however there
does not appear to be any other files with a 2009 date.

I therefore conclude that the current emails were stored somewhere
else. I do a daily backup to an external hard drive of everything in
c:\users\paul however when I do a search for any *.pst files, none can
be found - so I assume my backup doesn't copy hidden folders and
files.

I tried to use some recovery software (recover my files to find any
files pre-format however as I deleted the partitions and formatted
using Vista, I think it must have wiped everything as there appears to
be no trace of any files from before I re-installed Vista so I may have
to conclude I have lost the emails for good.

Will definitely look into a safer option for my emails now as they are
such an important part of my business.

Thanks

Paul

;333609']"Paul Steven" (e-mail address removed) wrote in
message

I had to reformat my Vista PC yesterday and I sensibly made a copy of
my
Outlook.pst file that was located in
c:\users\paul\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook

Anyway I reinstalled Outlook 2007 and then copied this Outlook.pst
file
into the same location and when I open Outlook, I do not see any
emails
from the last 8 months - only those prior to that.-

Sounds like you only made a copy of the Archive file, not the current
one.
Unless you have a backup, I'm afraid it's gone.