Lost Outlook Personal Mailbox

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G

Guest

I recently had problems with my XP operating system and decided the cure would be to reload it! Being the neanderthal that I am at times, I just reloaded the OS disk and off to the races I went (no backups of data etc.). I solved all the dilemmas with that stupid move. I then went and reloaded Office 2000. I didn't even think about my mailbox. With it reloaded I went to look for my personal mailbox. I have looked everywhere (doc/settings/appplication data/outlook, did *pst searches and banging my head against the wall) to no avail.

When I reloaded the OS, I renamed the volume so the new doc settings etc went under the new volume name and the old profile stayed (mercifully I was able to recover all my documents!) as well. The question now is am I up the stream without the proverbial paddle? as my geek sister often says, "I hate you power users, you cause so many problems!" Hate to admit she is right. Comments/help? Thanks

Ed
Wash DC
 
open windows explorer, show folders. Go to tools, options, view and select
the options to show hidden files and folders and system folders. might as
well show extensions while you're there. :)

Now browse the folder list under Documents and settings. You'll probably see
you old user as username and the new one as username.windows or something
like that. Browse the old one to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook and move the file to a new
location - either my documents (easier to backup) or the new user's outlook
folder.

Rename the new pst Outlook is using and when you open outlook, it will whine
and you can point it to the old one.
 
if you would tolerate a follow up to that. I did take an approach comparable to your suggestion last night both as myself as well as the administrator, but did not find a *.pst file that would be large enough to be my file (there is like 1.5 of emails, contacts, etc. in there.) I will give it another whirl tonight before I give up. One can only mourn about these things for so long (a week I think maybe the limit!) I thank you for your suggestion

Ed A
 
use search with the advanced option for searching hidden files and folders
and system folders - the old pst should be there.
 
Diane---thanks so very much for you advice - it worked and to be sure I exported/saved all the messages I would be lost without. Thanks again

Ed A
 
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