Outlook contacts mystery

[Guest]

I've recently experienced a loss of OUTLOOK 2002. My most serious concern it the loss of my current email folders, notes and contacts. Upon reinstalling the application, I have not been able to find any of these folders/files. I've searched all folders, subfolders and hidden files for the data without any success for this particular data. The search function did ID an archive folder and two small OUTLOOK folders (32K each) but nothing that looked like my current email data. I was about to give up and then this mystery occured. I was sending a note and keying the email address into the TO bar when OUTLOOK suddenly finished inputing the address. It is obvious that it has found the CONTACT folder but upon clicking on CONTACTS, none of my 300 addresses appear. This makes me think that my email folders are also somewhere on the disk. Can someone please help me resolve this? I am in very bad need of these contacts and my folders. Thanks.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

That information came from your autocompletion cache, not your Contacts
Folder.
"Experiencing a loss" tells us nothing. Unless you provide the exact nature
of the trouble you had and the steps you took to correct it, no one can help
you.
Even completely removing Outlook will not touch your PST files. They are
very difficult to lose unless you did something to corrupt or overwrite
them, in which case you'd need to open your most recent back up.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I've recently experienced a loss of OUTLOOK 2002. My most serious concern

it the loss of my current email folders, notes and contacts. Upon
reinstalling the application, I have not been able to find any of these
folders/files. I've searched all folders, subfolders and hidden files for
the data without any success for this particular data. The search function
did ID an archive folder and two small OUTLOOK folders (32K each) but
nothing that looked like my current email data. I was about to give up and
then this mystery occured. I was sending a note and keying the email
address into the TO bar when OUTLOOK suddenly finished inputing the address.
It is obvious that it has found the CONTACT folder but upon clicking on
CONTACTS, none of my 300 addresses appear. This makes me think that my
email folders are also somewhere on the disk. Can someone please help me
resolve this? I am in very bad need of these contacts and my folders.
Thanks.

 

[Guest]

OK...I understand that the email address came from the autocompletion cache. Where is this cache file located? What is it's identifier etc? Is there a way to display this cache so that I can retrieve the email addresses and import them back in a CONTACT folder within OUTLOOK? I cannot explain what happened to the lost files in OUTLOOK. I had a hardware professional install a second hard disk for me and he said that XP crashed during the install. I suspect that the OUTLOOK files became corrupted during this install but it is the only file that was corrupted which seems a bit strange. All other files are OK. I've done a deep search on all folders and files and no LARGE *.PST file comes up. I'm assuming that my file would have been at least 1 GB or more. My backup failed me also (which was my fault) which is why I've been trying so hard to find the lost or corrupted files of OUTLOOK. Any help is appreciated.

That information came from your autocompletion cache, not your Contacts
Folder.
"Experiencing a loss" tells us nothing. Unless you provide the exact nature
of the trouble you had and the steps you took to correct it, no one can help
you.
Even completely removing Outlook will not touch your PST files. They are
very difficult to lose unless you did something to corrupt or overwrite
them, in which case you'd need to open your most recent back up.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I've recently experienced a loss of OUTLOOK 2002. My most serious concern

it the loss of my current email folders, notes and contacts. Upon
reinstalling the application, I have not been able to find any of these
folders/files. I've searched all folders, subfolders and hidden files for
the data without any success for this particular data. The search function
did ID an archive folder and two small OUTLOOK folders (32K each) but
nothing that looked like my current email data. I was about to give up and
then this mystery occured. I was sending a note and keying the email
address into the TO bar when OUTLOOK suddenly finished inputing the address.
It is obvious that it has found the CONTACT folder but upon clicking on
CONTACTS, none of my 300 addresses appear. This makes me think that my
email folders are also somewhere on the disk. Can someone please help me
resolve this? I am in very bad need of these contacts and my folders.
Thanks.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

There is no help I can provide. Ask your hardware professional. He's the
only one who knows how your PST got trashed when "XP crashed during the
install."
That was a lot of information you left out, BTW.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

OK...I understand that the email address came from the autocompletion

cache. Where is this cache file located? What is it's identifier etc? Is
there a way to display this cache so that I can retrieve the email addresses
and import them back in a CONTACT folder within OUTLOOK? I cannot explain
what happened to the lost files in OUTLOOK. I had a hardware professional
install a second hard disk for me and he said that XP crashed during the
install. I suspect that the OUTLOOK files became corrupted during this
install but it is the only file that was corrupted which seems a bit
strange. All other files are OK. I've done a deep search on all folders
and files and no LARGE *.PST file comes up. I'm assuming that my file would
have been at least 1 GB or more. My backup failed me also (which was my
fault) which is why I've been trying so hard to find the lost or corrupted
files of OUTLOOK. Any help is appreciated.

That information came from your autocompletion cache, not your Contacts
Folder.
"Experiencing a loss" tells us nothing. Unless you provide the exact nature
of the trouble you had and the steps you took to correct it, no one can help
you.
Even completely removing Outlook will not touch your PST files. They are
very difficult to lose unless you did something to corrupt or overwrite
them, in which case you'd need to open your most recent back up.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I've recently experienced a loss of OUTLOOK 2002. My most serious

concern
it the loss of my current email folders, notes and contacts. Upon
reinstalling the application, I have not been able to find any of these
folders/files. I've searched all folders, subfolders and hidden files for
the data without any success for this particular data. The search function
did ID an archive folder and two small OUTLOOK folders (32K each) but
nothing that looked like my current email data. I was about to give up and
then this mystery occured. I was sending a note and keying the email
address into the TO bar when OUTLOOK suddenly finished inputing the address.
It is obvious that it has found the CONTACT folder but upon clicking on
CONTACTS, none of my 300 addresses appear. This makes me think that my
email folders are also somewhere on the disk. Can someone please help me
resolve this? I am in very bad need of these contacts and my folders.
Thanks.

 

[Guest]

I found the autocompletion cache file. However, it is not anything that can be retrieved or at least it doesn't appear as if it can be. OUTLOOK's files apparently became corrupted during an installation of a slave 80GB drive (done by a professional). He admitted that XP crashed during the installation. I can only assume that that is how I lost the files. It is interesting to note that the OUTLOOK files are the only ones that I lost. I've done a deep search of files and have even used a recovery file program but have not been able to find the OUTLOOK records. I wish there were a way to scan the system for a unique word so that I might be able to identify the location of these files and then perhaps recover them. I am not aware of any sort of program that will do that. Unfortunately, my backup is of no value. That was my fault. Again, any help you can offer will be appreciate. I am about 3 days away from simply rebuilding my entire operating system. It is over 3 years old and full of junk data so perhaps a new start would be best. Besides, I suppose it is possible that some portion of XP is also corrupted as a result of the crash.

That information came from your autocompletion cache, not your Contacts
Folder.
"Experiencing a loss" tells us nothing. Unless you provide the exact nature
of the trouble you had and the steps you took to correct it, no one can help
you.
Even completely removing Outlook will not touch your PST files. They are
very difficult to lose unless you did something to corrupt or overwrite
them, in which case you'd need to open your most recent back up.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I've recently experienced a loss of OUTLOOK 2002. My most serious concern

it the loss of my current email folders, notes and contacts. Upon
reinstalling the application, I have not been able to find any of these
folders/files. I've searched all folders, subfolders and hidden files for
the data without any success for this particular data. The search function
did ID an archive folder and two small OUTLOOK folders (32K each) but
nothing that looked like my current email data. I was about to give up and
then this mystery occured. I was sending a note and keying the email
address into the TO bar when OUTLOOK suddenly finished inputing the address.
It is obvious that it has found the CONTACT folder but upon clicking on
CONTACTS, none of my 300 addresses appear. This makes me think that my
email folders are also somewhere on the disk. Can someone please help me
resolve this? I am in very bad need of these contacts and my folders.
Thanks.