Start Outlook and set up your email account.
Close Outlook
Copy the .pst file
Go to C:\Users\REPLACE WITH YOUR ACCOUNT
NAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\
Paste the .pst file here
Job done.
NIK
Darwin,
I'm not sure where you are at, but this is an explanation I made for a
friend with a new computer from my notes when I did the migration, and
they
worked for him.
Like I said, I'm not a Techie, so I might not explain everything quite
right.
Migrating Outlook Files to a new computer:
To get to your Outlook files in Explorer you have to find the box to
'include hidden files' (in XP I think it was 'show'). I believe it is
in the
regular View menu in Explorer in XP.
To view hidden folders in Explorer on your Vista computer
Tools/folder options/View/display hidden files
If you search for your Outlook files, search for *.pst and you will
not
find them unless you include hidden files. Everything (mail, contacts,
calendar) was in one .pst file on both computers. If you use shared
Outlook
files, I think you also need to find *.pab files, and I'm not sure what
you
do with them.
If I remember right, the .pst files are in the Outlook Program folder
in
both XP and Vista, however, the folder path to them is different.
Unless
you've created your own file, I'm pretty sure it is called outlook.pst
in
both XP and Vista.
You need to get your *.pst folder from your old computer into your
Personel Folder on the new computer , and the default for Personal
Folders
is Outlook.pst on your new Vista computer.
The path in Vista where it stores the outlook file is:
Your computer name\Users\your user name\my outlook\outlook.pst
If you can avoid it, do not set up e-mail on your new computer until
you
have done this, because you will lose all of that when you replace it
with
the folder from your old computer. You want the outlook file to stay
empty,
and if you set it up, it will start receiving e-mails. Since I set up
and
received e-mails on my new computer right away, I created
newoutlook.pst on
my Vista computer and moved my outlook files from my old computer into
it.
I remember that I had to tell Outlook to open this file as my personal
folders, and I don't remember how I did that. It may have just come
up the
first time I opened Outlook after I created the new file, and Outlook
was
confused because it only expected to find one *.pst file. So it asked
me the
name of my Personal Folder file.
I did have a problem in that my new Personal Folder showed up all the
way at
the bottom of the list of folders in Outlook, and actually went to a
second
page. So I did a lot of farting around because I didn't think it was
excepting my new file, when all that happened was I couldn't see it!
Later I was able to drop and drag the mail that had arrived in the
Vista
Personal Folders into my personal folder just in Outlook. However, if
you
have calendar or contacts to merge, I'm not sure how that would work.
There was a lot of discussion on the forum, and discrepancies in
articles on
how to physically move the *.pst files. I believe neither
backup/restore nor
import/export will take all of the hidden files you need with them. I
know I
just dropped and dragged the outlook.pst file to a flash drive in
Explorer on
my old computer, and then I think I did a SAVE AS on the new computer.
Your computer name\Users\your user name\my outlook\outlook.pst
Replace outlook.pst with the name that you saved the file as on your
Vista
computer. Russ Valentine does address this in his posts to me using
the
Outlook installation using the command.
File > Open > Outlook data file
I used the three web sites that Russ recommended to come up with this
procedure.
I hope it helps, and I'm not giving you any bad advice. I have not had
any
problems with Outlook on my Vista computer.
Good luck!
:
Did the last option work? I am faced with the same problem. I
transferred all
files from old computer with XP to new Computer with Vista using Easy
Transfer Wizard and a crossove cable. Everything works fine except
OUTLOOK
:
Unfortunately, Microsoft has made migrating Outlook data a near
impossibility. Not only do its "Wizards" not work, the correct
procedure is
so counterintuitive that no one guesses it one the first ten tries.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Thankyou, I will try it and let you know how it goes. With the
time I've
spent on this, I could have manually rebuilt my calendar, 4
contact
folders,
and copied my correspondence off into text files!
:
What "backup Wizard" did you use?
Microsoft's instructions on this process are not correct. You
should not
move your data file to Outlook's default folder.
All you need to do is make a copy of your Outlook data file using
Windows
Explorer (avoid using anything process with the word "Wizard"),
place
that
file on your new hard drive in any location but Outlook's default
folder
(like where you store your other data), then open the file in
your new
Outlook installation using the File > Open > Outlook data file
command.
Take a look at these pages for info on Outlook data backup or
transfer:
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
http://www.howto-outlook.com/Howto/backupandrestore.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Let's start by saying I'm not a techie, and I work out of my
home, so
please
explain things SIMPLY to me, because I've got no one to ask. I
have
been
working for two Days to figure out how to move my outlook mail
files,
contacts and calendar from my old XP, Office 2003 computer to
my new
Vista,
Office 2007 computer . The Microsoft help page says to backup
your
outlook.pst files to an external device, and then use Explorer
to move
them
to drive:\Documents and settings\<user>\Local
Settings\application\Microsoft\Outlook folder. However when I
used the
backup wizard to put the files on my external hard drive, it
would not
let
me
open the Outlook folder on my XP computer, so I backed up the
whole
Outlook
folder. But I can't open my backup copy to get just the .pst
file to
move
it to the Outook folder on my Vista computer. So I figure I
need to
restore
the old Outlook folder onto my external drive and plug it into
my new
Visa
computer so I can open the folder on my new computer, and move
just the
.pst
file to the Outlook folder on the new Vista computer. Is this
a good
assumption or is there a better way? Thank you for any help you
can
give
me.
