Outlook 2000 with XP Pro - cannot find contacts.pst !

  • Thread starter Thread starter victory
  • Start date Start date
V

victory

I have recently upgraded from W2K Pro to XP Pro and re-installed MS
Office 2000 Pro.

Although MS Outlook 2000 seems happy enough in XP - its installed in
the C:\Program Files\MS Office\Office folder - I cannot find the file
" contacts.pst " in oder to keep my Outlook Contacts File updated as I
did with W2K .

The only .pst file showing when a search is made is "Outlook.pst"

Is the "contacts.pst " renamed in XP to "Outlook.pst " ? If not where
does MS Outlook 2000 save the contents of the Contact Folder in XP ?

B.N.
 
PST files are moved when you upgrade your OS, but they're still there.
Search for them. Be sure you search for and display hidden files.
 
yOn Fri, 31 Oct 2003 12:37:48 -0500, "Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]"
PST files are moved when you upgrade your OS, but they're still there.
Search for them. Be sure you search for and display hidden files.
Click to expand...

Thank you - I have searched for them and arranged for hidden files to
be displayed.

The search finds " contacts.pst " in several of my Partitions

I have 2 pyhsical hard drives :- the the original and the one which I
use for most operations is partitioned into C: , E: , F: , G: & H:

The other is the D:\ drive

I use an Application called " Second Copy " which is programmed to
back up selected files to a backup destination. The instructions and
relevant paths for these files are stored within this App. This setup
with " Second Copy " was established when I ran W2K on my C: drive:

Under W2K I used and continue now under XP Pro to use , MS Outlook
2000 solely as a contacts database containing all phone numbers which
I assumed , (and sttill assume ! ) , are contained within the file "
contacts.pst "and further assume that this file is integrated within
MS Office generally and within MS Outlook particularly !!

Therefore , given that the only item which has changed with my setup
is that the OS is now no longer W2K but XP , it would seem a
reasonable assumptiom to make that , wherever the file " contacts.pst
" is found on the partitioned hard drive , this file will faithfully
reflect any changes I now make to the contacts I maintain in Outlook.

Is this a correct assumption ?

When I ran W2K Pro , the "Second Copy " App was given the path as the
SOURCE of the contacts data as :-

C:\Documents & Settings\Administrator\Local
Settings\Application Data\Outlook.

This path enabled Second Copy to find the "contacts.pst" file and and
note any changes therein and backup these changes accordingly

This fails under XP as the above path does not appear as such and the
closest I can get to it is :-

....as above except "Administrator " is replaced with " my
named account "and \Outlook does not contain " contacts.pst " at all !

I have to say that , since the day I first started to use MS Office
2000 , ( I use Word , Access and , occasionally , Excel as well as
Outlook ) , Outlook is the one which has confused me the most .

One of the my major confusions with Outlook is that a FOLDER , ( the
Contacts Folder and also the Calendar Folder ) , are , somehow ,
contained INSIDE a FILE ( the contacts.pst file ) !!!!

I had always assumd that FILES where contained inside FOLDERS !!
Yet another example of Microsoft confusing syntax !!

B.N.
 
If there is a question remaining here, could you distill it please? In
Outlook a PST contains _all_ your Outlook data. It's where all the mail,
calendar, contacts etc are stored.

Take a look at these pages for info on Outlook data backup:
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
yOn Fri, 31 Oct 2003 12:37:48 -0500, "Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]"
PST files are moved when you upgrade your OS, but they're still there.
Search for them. Be sure you search for and display hidden files.
Click to expand...

Thank you - I have searched for them and arranged for hidden files to
be displayed.

The search finds " contacts.pst " in several of my Partitions

I have 2 pyhsical hard drives :- the the original and the one which I
use for most operations is partitioned into C: , E: , F: , G: & H:

The other is the D:\ drive

I use an Application called " Second Copy " which is programmed to
back up selected files to a backup destination. The instructions and
relevant paths for these files are stored within this App. This setup
with " Second Copy " was established when I ran W2K on my C: drive:

Under W2K I used and continue now under XP Pro to use , MS Outlook
2000 solely as a contacts database containing all phone numbers which
I assumed , (and sttill assume ! ) , are contained within the file "
contacts.pst "and further assume that this file is integrated within
MS Office generally and within MS Outlook particularly !!

Therefore , given that the only item which has changed with my setup
is that the OS is now no longer W2K but XP , it would seem a
reasonable assumptiom to make that , wherever the file " contacts.pst
" is found on the partitioned hard drive , this file will faithfully
reflect any changes I now make to the contacts I maintain in Outlook.

Is this a correct assumption ?

When I ran W2K Pro , the "Second Copy " App was given the path as the
SOURCE of the contacts data as :-

C:\Documents & Settings\Administrator\Local
Settings\Application Data\Outlook.

This path enabled Second Copy to find the "contacts.pst" file and and
note any changes therein and backup these changes accordingly

This fails under XP as the above path does not appear as such and the
closest I can get to it is :-

....as above except "Administrator " is replaced with " my
named account "and \Outlook does not contain " contacts.pst " at all !

I have to say that , since the day I first started to use MS Office
2000 , ( I use Word , Access and , occasionally , Excel as well as
Outlook ) , Outlook is the one which has confused me the most .

One of the my major confusions with Outlook is that a FOLDER , ( the
Contacts Folder and also the Calendar Folder ) , are , somehow ,
contained INSIDE a FILE ( the contacts.pst file ) !!!!

I had always assumd that FILES where contained inside FOLDERS !!
Yet another example of Microsoft confusing syntax !!

B.N.
Click to expand...
 
If there is a question remaining here, could you distill it please? In
Outlook a PST contains _all_ your Outlook data. It's where all the mail,
calendar, contacts etc are stored.
Click to expand...

Having just re-read my last post I accept that your request for a
"re-distlling" of it is reasonable ! It was too long and rambling !
Take a look at these pages for info on Outlook data backup:
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
Click to expand...

I've looked at this reference and noted its contents.

I'll attempt here to re-explain my difficulty with Outlook backup
since upgrading to XP Pro.

Before I upgraded , any time I added to the Contacts Folder in
Outlook2000 I would go into FILE| IMPORT & EXPORT which brings up the
Import/Export Wizard . Following this I saved the data into a file
called " contacts.pst ".

After upgrading to XP Pro , ( using a "Clean Install " ) , I then
re-installed MS Office Professional onto the same drive into which I
had installed XP , i.e. the C:\ drive.

I assumed that , if I now searched the C:\ drive for the file "
contacts.pst" I would find this file there as I further assumed this
file would be an integral part of the MS Office Application.

This search fails to find "contacts.pst " on the C:\ drive .

Does this mean that , if I had a PC with an unpartitioned hard drive ,
onto which I had installed XP and MS Office 2000 , then there would be
no such file as "contacts.pst " created ?

If the answer to this question is "Yes " then how would any data
created in Outlook 2000 be able to be backed up ? Where would it go ?

I notice that there are two files on the C:\ drive , "backup.pst" and
"Outlook.pst" which have the path :- c:\Docs & Settings\My Name\Local
Settings\App Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

Are these now where all Outlook Contacts Folder data is stored in XP ?
What are the differences between these two Folders and in what way do
they differ from "contacts.pst" ?

B.N.
 
All Outlook data is stored in a single PST file and always has been. There
have never been a separate PST files for different types of Outlook data.
The only way Outlook items would become separated into different PST files
is if you expressly create a file containing only one item type one by
exporting only a single folder, as you did.

Normally one backs up the entire PST simply by copying it periodically onto
a different storage medium or drive. Exporting is not a good way to back up
Outlook data.
 
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