unable to open your default email folders

[Gdaymate]

Upgraded from Office 2000 to 2003 on Vista Home Premium. When I start Outlook
it says "unable to open your default email folders. outlook could not start
because a data file to send and receive mail could not be found. Double click
Mail icon in Control Panel." So I can't get into Outlook at all. If I go to
Mail, the choice is for email, data or profiles. If i select data it saya
'select a data file...", and it lists Business contact Mgr, with a status of
Not Available. Why can't I just point it at my old .PST file?

 

[CoreyF]

I suppose when you did try to add your .pst file in Outlook 2003 you selected
the "97 - 2002" file type? Be sure you have Office 2003 SP3 installed, then
reinstall Outlook only using the Office cd if you do not have success adding
your Outlook 2000 .pst file.

 

[Gdaymate]

I suppose when you did try to add your .pst file in Outlook 2003 you selected
the "97 - 2002" file type? Be sure you have Office 2003 SP3 installed, then
reinstall Outlook only using the Office cd if you do not have success adding
your Outlook 2000 .pst file.

I specified that I wanted to upgrade rather than do a custom install. Once
it had finished I tried to open Outlook and got the previously described
error message. So I haven't had the opportunity to be able to select a file
type. Should I have been asked this during installation? You would have
thought that the install program would have found the .PST file and asked
what I wanted to do with it, but it didn't. I haven't installed SP3, so i
will do that now.

 

[Gdaymate]

Have installed SP3, and no change. Still can't get into Outlook. If I click
on Mail and:
-select 'data' it says 'select a data file...", and it lists Business
contact Mgr, with a status of 'Not Available'. If I select 'Add" it displays
"Business contact Mgr Database" with the option of OK or Cancel. There's no
option to select another file or location.
-If I select 'email' I can add or view an email account or directory. If I
select directory, and then 'existing' (and the same for 'add'), I have to
choose LDAP or 'additional address book'. If I select the latter it shows a
blank list and asks me to choose one!!
I've run a program to repair the .pST file and that ran OK, but still
Outlook doesn't want to have anything to do with it.
I've tried creating a new profile, and got the error message 'there was an
error locating one of the items needed to complete this operation. It might
have been deleted'.
I upgraded to Office 2003 because I wanted something that ran well under
Vista!!

 

[Gdaymate]

FIXED! selected mail, data files, BCM, removed it. Then it asked if I wanted
98-2002 .pst files or .pst file. Don't know what BCM is, or why it was there,
but it buggered up everything.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Upgraded from Office 2000 to 2003 on Vista Home Premium. When I start
Outlook
it says "unable to open your default email folders. outlook could not
start
because a data file to send and receive mail could not be found. Double
click
Mail icon in Control Panel." So I can't get into Outlook at all. If I go
to
Mail, the choice is for email, data or profiles. If i select data it saya
'select a data file...", and it lists Business contact Mgr, with a status
of
Not Available. Why can't I just point it at my old .PST file?

Why do you think you can't? Use the Data Files button in the Mail applet in
Control Panel to add your old PST. Then use the Mail applet's E-mail
Accounts button. Click Next. At the bottom, change the "Delivery new
e-mail to the following location" drop-down to select the old PST. You can
then drop the new PST if you want, again using the Data Files button.

 

[Gdaymate]

Why do you think you can't? Use the Data Files button in the Mail applet in
Control Panel to add your old PST.

I think what you'cve described is what I've done. The really annoying thing
was that until I removed BCM I couldn't do anything with Outlook, and no one
ever suggested that I should remove BCM. As soon as I removed it, I was then
able to point Mail at my old .PST. So it's annoying that the MS Install
program didn't find my .PST and offer me the choice of using this, and
equally annoying that after searching all the material and newsgoups no one
could identify BCM as the culprit!! I've wasted so much time on this.

Then use the Mail applet's E-mail
Accounts button. Click Next. At the bottom, change the "Delivery new
e-mail to the following location" drop-down to select the old PST. You can
then drop the new PST if you want, again using the Data Files button.

I'm not sure what you're describing here. Can you give me a bit more info on
this please. As soon as I pointed Mail at my old .PST file Outlook worked.
Why would i need to do what you're describing? I don't have a new .PST file
because i could never open Outlook until I'd sorted out the BCM problem.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I'm not sure what you're describing here. Can you give me a bit more info
on
this please. As soon as I pointed Mail at my old .PST file Outlook worked.
Why would i need to do what you're describing? I don't have a new .PST
file
because i could never open Outlook until I'd sorted out the BCM problem.

Often, installing Outlook will create a new mail profile and a new PST.
Since you say that didn't happen, then there's nothing else to do.