Importing .pst files

[Guest]

I have a 243MB pst file that I am trying to import onto a new computer with
no success. I have run Scanpst on the file which always identifies errors
and says that they are corrected. (Number of errors found is always the same
on repeated runs.)
I have even downloaded an ontrack file repair to no additional success.

The error that I get on the import attempt is that the file is not an
outllook personal folders file. My IT Manager has created the pst file as he
has many other times.

Any suggestions.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Why are you importing a native file? Just open it.
How was this file created and stored?

 

[Guest]

It was allegedly created with the export function.

Why are you importing a native file? Just open it.
How was this file created and stored?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I have a 243MB pst file that I am trying to import onto a new computer with
no success. I have run Scanpst on the file which always identifies errors
and says that they are corrected. (Number of errors found is always the
same
on repeated runs.)
I have even downloaded an ontrack file repair to no additional success.

The error that I get on the import attempt is that the file is not an
outllook personal folders file. My IT Manager has created the pst file as
he
has many other times.

Any suggestions.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Not a reliable way to create PST files.
What happens if you just try to open it instead of import it?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

It was allegedly created with the export function.

Why are you importing a native file? Just open it.
How was this file created and stored?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I have a 243MB pst file that I am trying to import onto a new computer
with
no success. I have run Scanpst on the file which always identifies
errors
and says that they are corrected. (Number of errors found is always the
same
on repeated runs.)
I have even downloaded an ontrack file repair to no additional success.

The error that I get on the import attempt is that the file is not an
outllook personal folders file. My IT Manager has created the pst file
as
he
has many other times.

Any suggestions.

 

[Guest]

Same error, essentially says it is not a valid personal folders file

Not a reliable way to create PST files.
What happens if you just try to open it instead of import it?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

It was allegedly created with the export function.

Why are you importing a native file? Just open it.
How was this file created and stored?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
I have a 243MB pst file that I am trying to import onto a new computer
with
no success. I have run Scanpst on the file which always identifies
errors
and says that they are corrected. (Number of errors found is always the
same
on repeated runs.)
I have even downloaded an ontrack file repair to no additional success.

The error that I get on the import attempt is that the file is not an
outllook personal folders file. My IT Manager has created the pst file
as
he
has many other times.

Any suggestions.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Same error, essentially says it is not a valid personal folders file

Sounds like you're out of luck. My guess is that the PST was damaged either
when you created it or when you copied it to or from the transfer medium.

 

[Guest]

I have the same maddening problem and would guarantee you the file is
corrupted. I also used the export/import feature and when i attempt to either
use the import wizard or simply open it as an "outlook data file" from the
outlook "file" menu, it says "backup.pst is not a personal folders file."
"backup" is the name i gave the file when i created it using the
import/export wizard.

The irony is that i anticipated having some sort of problem when
reinstalling my outlook backup data on a reformatted machine so i tried to at
least move all my contacts and calendar onto my MSN hotmail using Outlook
Connector - you guessed it, the connector wouldn't work properly and i
couldn't get it uploaded! This is hilarious when i think that i subscribed to
MSN solely so i could have a backup of all my outlook data. The comedy never
ends!

I have wasted days of my life with this problem and share your pain. To
relieve some of the agony, i'm on my way to setting up linux with firefox and
thunderbird. After major SP2 hassles - which is why i reformatted and did a
fresh install of xp - and this outlook nightmare, i promised myself i would
lessen my dependence on ms. FYI, after a careful and clean install of
everything including SP2, logging into hotmail results in a freezing of IE6.
Of course, hotmail through mozilla firefox is a beautiful experience - none
of the same problem.

In the end, i continue to see thousands of people across the web who have
the same problem and can't find anything on the ms site even remotely trying
to address this problem. Unacceptable. Why is everything so difficult with
ms????

Does anyone have a solution before i have to recreate all my contacts and
calendar again? Else, i will simply move to a desert island and donate my
computer to the local school.

 

[Guest]

Sorry, i meant to type "guarantee you the file is NOT corrupted". It seems
too many people have this problem for everyone to have a corrupted file.
Also, looking through the extensive list of people having the same problem,
why doesn't microsoft warn of the problems with import/export or trash the
feature with one of their now famous automatic updates???

After all, this is not some dinky little feature or setting what colour your
background color is. Your contacts, email and calendar are the mainstay of
everyday life and THE CENTRAL REASON OUTLOOK EXISTS! How can ms let
thousands, millions, of people lose them via a faulty process on the main
outlook menu?

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Have fun. I find Thunderbird confusing but am giving it a try nonetheless.

Perhaps if you had just copied your .pst file and not
exported/imported/whatevered, as recommended here, you would not be seeing
the problems that you are now. Never blame the tool for the lack in the
user.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, Pete asked:

| I have the same maddening problem and would guarantee you the file is
| corrupted. I also used the export/import feature and when i attempt
| to either use the import wizard or simply open it as an "outlook data
| file" from the outlook "file" menu, it says "backup.pst is not a
| personal folders file." "backup" is the name i gave the file when i
| created it using the import/export wizard.
|
| The irony is that i anticipated having some sort of problem when
| reinstalling my outlook backup data on a reformatted machine so i
| tried to at least move all my contacts and calendar onto my MSN
| hotmail using Outlook Connector - you guessed it, the connector
| wouldn't work properly and i couldn't get it uploaded! This is
| hilarious when i think that i subscribed to MSN solely so i could
| have a backup of all my outlook data. The comedy never ends!
|
| I have wasted days of my life with this problem and share your pain.
| To relieve some of the agony, i'm on my way to setting up linux with
| firefox and thunderbird. After major SP2 hassles - which is why i
| reformatted and did a fresh install of xp - and this outlook
| nightmare, i promised myself i would lessen my dependence on ms. FYI,
| after a careful and clean install of everything including SP2,
| logging into hotmail results in a freezing of IE6. Of course, hotmail
| through mozilla firefox is a beautiful experience - none of the same
| problem.
|
| In the end, i continue to see thousands of people across the web who
| have
| the same problem and can't find anything on the ms site even remotely
| trying to address this problem. Unacceptable. Why is everything so
| difficult with ms????
|
| Does anyone have a solution before i have to recreate all my contacts
| and calendar again? Else, i will simply move to a desert island and
| donate my computer to the local school.
|
| "Brian Tillman" wrote:
|
||
||| Same error, essentially says it is not a valid personal folders file
||
|| Sounds like you're out of luck. My guess is that the PST was
|| damaged either when you created it or when you copied it to or from
|| the transfer medium. --
|| Brian Tillman

 

[Guest]

Hilarious! I see you and others chirp in with the "why did you use the import
feature?" comment repeatedly through this forum. I ask again, why would the
average user:

- Distrust the feature on the Outlook menu, which is advocated on the
outloook help files and the ms website as the way to do it? It looks like
this problem has been around for years, based on the thousands of desperate
cries for help i've seen across the web, so why is the feature there?

- Why doesn't the ms outlook website warn prominently of this? And, why is
the outlook backup utility a separate download and references to it buried in
the bowels of the site? Is this an inside joke in Redmond? It seems to me
this is one of the most important features i can imagine.

- Even if the average user did for some reason suspect there may be a
problem with import/export, they probably wouldn't easily find the .pst file
given that it is hidden by default in windows explorer.

I am a mildly sophisticated user but cannot imagine the how hopleless the
average person feels when facing these problems.

Anyway, for lack of any substantive guidance from ms, and given i just
wasted another hour of my life, i give up. I will retype all 200 of my
contacts and recreate my calendar. Forget my old email, who needs it anyway
as i'm off to a desert island to live in bliss! I'll use my contacts to send
my goodbye notes!

Thanks for your help Milly. I wish ms had added an outlook menu item that
said "Click here to get Milly's guidance before choosing to backup your pst
file"!

Have fun. I find Thunderbird confusing but am giving it a try nonetheless.

Perhaps if you had just copied your .pst file and not
exported/imported/whatevered, as recommended here, you would not be seeing
the problems that you are now. Never blame the tool for the lack in the
user.

--Â
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, Pete asked:

| I have the same maddening problem and would guarantee you the file is
| corrupted. I also used the export/import feature and when i attempt
| to either use the import wizard or simply open it as an "outlook data
| file" from the outlook "file" menu, it says "backup.pst is not a
| personal folders file." "backup" is the name i gave the file when i
| created it using the import/export wizard.
|
| The irony is that i anticipated having some sort of problem when
| reinstalling my outlook backup data on a reformatted machine so i
| tried to at least move all my contacts and calendar onto my MSN
| hotmail using Outlook Connector - you guessed it, the connector
| wouldn't work properly and i couldn't get it uploaded! This is
| hilarious when i think that i subscribed to MSN solely so i could
| have a backup of all my outlook data. The comedy never ends!
|
| I have wasted days of my life with this problem and share your pain.
| To relieve some of the agony, i'm on my way to setting up linux with
| firefox and thunderbird. After major SP2 hassles - which is why i
| reformatted and did a fresh install of xp - and this outlook
| nightmare, i promised myself i would lessen my dependence on ms. FYI,
| after a careful and clean install of everything including SP2,
| logging into hotmail results in a freezing of IE6. Of course, hotmail
| through mozilla firefox is a beautiful experience - none of the same
| problem.
|
| In the end, i continue to see thousands of people across the web who
| have
| the same problem and can't find anything on the ms site even remotely
| trying to address this problem. Unacceptable. Why is everything so
| difficult with ms????
|
| Does anyone have a solution before i have to recreate all my contacts
| and calendar again? Else, i will simply move to a desert island and
| donate my computer to the local school.
|
| "Brian Tillman" wrote:
|
||
||| Same error, essentially says it is not a valid personal folders file
||
|| Sounds like you're out of luck. My guess is that the PST was
|| damaged either when you created it or when you copied it to or from
|| the transfer medium. --
|| Brian Tillman

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have the same maddening problem and would guarantee you the file is
corrupted. I also used the export/import feature and when i attempt
to either use the import wizard or simply open it as an "outlook data
file" from the outlook "file" menu, it says "backup.pst is not a
personal folders file." "backup" is the name i gave the file when i
created it using the import/export wizard.

One of the reasons people recommend not using export to "back up" your PST.

 

[Kerry Liles]

I cannot see too much earlier discussion in this thread (sorry) but has
anyone already asked whether the .pst file is marked "read only"? This
causes all sorts of erroneous error messages in my experience...

apologies if this is not relevant...

 

[Brian Tillman]

Hilarious! I see you and others chirp in with the "why did you use
the import feature?" comment repeatedly through this forum. I ask
again, why would the average user:

- Distrust the feature on the Outlook menu, which is advocated on the
outloook help files and the ms website as the way to do it? It looks
like this problem has been around for years, based on the thousands
of desperate cries for help i've seen across the web, so why is the
feature there?

Importing and exporting is and has always been most suited for transferring
data between disparate applications, not for transferring data between two
instances of the same application. How do you transfer a Word document from
one instance of Word to another? Do you export it in one and import it the
other? No. You copy, since DOC files are Word's native format. Likewise
PSTs are Outlook's native format, so, just as with Word, you COPY the PST.

However, I will grant you that it _should_ work. The reality, though, is
that sometimes it doesn't. You can extrract a nail from lumber with a
screwdriver sometimes, but that doesn't make it the best approach. The
export function appears to be less than robust at times.

Why doesn't the ms outlook website warn prominently of this?

You'll have to ask Microsoft employes that question.

And, why is the outlook backup utility a separate download and references
to it buried in the bowels of the site? Is this an inside joke in
Redmond? It seems to me this is one of the most important features i
can imagine.

I had no trouble finding the backup utility. A simple search for "backup"
in the knowledgebase finds it readily.

Even if the average user did for some reason suspect there may be a
problem with import/export, they probably wouldn't easily find the
.pst file given that it is hidden by default in windows explorer.

It's easy to find. Outlook tells you exactly where it is, if you ask.
However, I'll grant that hidden folders can be confusing to an
unsophisticated user. One of the problems is that many people don't bother
to learn in adequate depth the tools they use. Very little about every day
computer use is complicated. It gets complcated only when one wants to
understand the inner workings.

 

[Guest]

Couldn't agree with you more, Pete! This is not a user problem. I've scanned
every possible source for a solution on this.. nothing.. Your description is
true.
Dag T

Hilarious! I see you and others chirp in with the "why did you use the import
feature?" comment repeatedly through this forum. I ask again, why would the
average user:

- Distrust the feature on the Outlook menu, which is advocated on the
outloook help files and the ms website as the way to do it? It looks like
this problem has been around for years, based on the thousands of desperate
cries for help i've seen across the web, so why is the feature there?

- Why doesn't the ms outlook website warn prominently of this? And, why is
the outlook backup utility a separate download and references to it buried in
the bowels of the site? Is this an inside joke in Redmond? It seems to me
this is one of the most important features i can imagine.

- Even if the average user did for some reason suspect there may be a
problem with import/export, they probably wouldn't easily find the .pst file
given that it is hidden by default in windows explorer.

I am a mildly sophisticated user but cannot imagine the how hopleless the
average person feels when facing these problems.

Anyway, for lack of any substantive guidance from ms, and given i just
wasted another hour of my life, i give up. I will retype all 200 of my
contacts and recreate my calendar. Forget my old email, who needs it anyway
as i'm off to a desert island to live in bliss! I'll use my contacts to send
my goodbye notes!

Thanks for your help Milly. I wish ms had added an outlook menu item that
said "Click here to get Milly's guidance before choosing to backup your pst
file"!

Have fun. I find Thunderbird confusing but am giving it a try nonetheless.

Perhaps if you had just copied your .pst file and not
exported/imported/whatevered, as recommended here, you would not be seeing
the problems that you are now. Never blame the tool for the lack in the
user.

--Â
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, Pete asked:

| I have the same maddening problem and would guarantee you the file is
| corrupted. I also used the export/import feature and when i attempt
| to either use the import wizard or simply open it as an "outlook data
| file" from the outlook "file" menu, it says "backup.pst is not a
| personal folders file." "backup" is the name i gave the file when i
| created it using the import/export wizard.
|
| The irony is that i anticipated having some sort of problem when
| reinstalling my outlook backup data on a reformatted machine so i
| tried to at least move all my contacts and calendar onto my MSN
| hotmail using Outlook Connector - you guessed it, the connector
| wouldn't work properly and i couldn't get it uploaded! This is
| hilarious when i think that i subscribed to MSN solely so i could
| have a backup of all my outlook data. The comedy never ends!
|
| I have wasted days of my life with this problem and share your pain.
| To relieve some of the agony, i'm on my way to setting up linux with
| firefox and thunderbird. After major SP2 hassles - which is why i
| reformatted and did a fresh install of xp - and this outlook
| nightmare, i promised myself i would lessen my dependence on ms. FYI,
| after a careful and clean install of everything including SP2,
| logging into hotmail results in a freezing of IE6. Of course, hotmail
| through mozilla firefox is a beautiful experience - none of the same
| problem.
|
| In the end, i continue to see thousands of people across the web who
| have
| the same problem and can't find anything on the ms site even remotely
| trying to address this problem. Unacceptable. Why is everything so
| difficult with ms????
|
| Does anyone have a solution before i have to recreate all my contacts
| and calendar again? Else, i will simply move to a desert island and
| donate my computer to the local school.
|
| "Brian Tillman" wrote:
|
||
||| Same error, essentially says it is not a valid personal folders file
||
|| Sounds like you're out of luck. My guess is that the PST was
|| damaged either when you created it or when you copied it to or from
|| the transfer medium. --
|| Brian Tillman