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General discussion

Need Outlook file recovery help - MS Office 2003

Nov 4, 2005 1:26AM PST

OK so I really screwed up my system and did a recovery. That in turn corrupted my entire MS Office '03 suite and would not allow access to back up my PST files. Yes, tried uninstall and reinstall to no avail.

Had to do a clean install of XP..yikes..!!!

In desperation I moved the MS Office files from the C: drive to a folder in D; drive hoping someone could show me how to find the Outlook files.

Any help to recover my school records would be greatly appreciated...thanks...

Chinookman
XP-Pro SP2
Antec Sonata w/Abit Fatality1 mobo/AMD64 3200+/1gig Corsair DDR

Discussion is locked

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Re: outlook backup
Nov 4, 2005 3:00AM PST

If the MS Office stuff you moved from the c: to the d: included your PST-file (I don't know because you didn't tell, you won't blame me for that) you should be able to import the contents of the old PST-file (practically all Outlook data) into the new one.

If, however, you didn't copy it, left it on the c:, then let the Windows XP install erase the c:, you've lost it.

See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;196492 for the Outlook 2000 version of File>Import. I can't find an OL 2003 version.

By the way, this article shows that you don't need a working Office to backup Outlook data. Just burn the PST-file to DVD/CD-RW once a week and you never lose more than 1 week of work. If you buy a 1 Gb USB-stick and know something about batchfiles and xcopy /s /m, it's practically free to make a daily backup of about everything you changed since your last CD-RW backup.


Hope this helps.


Kees

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MS Office '03 help
Nov 4, 2005 11:50AM PST

My communications skills at times do lack.... Wink
What I moved was the entire MS Office 11 file structure from C; drive to a temp folder in D: drive.

MY question now is how to find the email files..?

I could not export them as a PST file as I normally do because I got a message telling me that the file was corrupt and the applicaiton would not open. Then I did a repair,uninstall and reinstall to no avail.

Appreciate the 1gig usb stick idea that's cool and will get me one!...Now about easter egg hunting for those files in the original structure is that possible...?

TIA

C-man

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Re: location of PST-file
Nov 4, 2005 5:59PM PST

It's somewhere in your Documents and Settings on newer OS'es, and by default in c:\windows in older OS'es. It's NOT in Program Files.
Somehow, I don't think your data are included in what you call "the entire MS Office 11 file structure".

Kees

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location of PST-file
Nov 4, 2005 10:43PM PST

Oppsssss.....LOL...OK well thank you for your patience you've been very kind......guess I'm done...have a great weekend..

C-man