problems reconnect old data file .pst

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Guest

Hi,

Had to reinstall XP Sp2 and then Office 2003 student/teacher edition on new
notebook. Copied the .pst and assorted files from an external hard drive
and pasted to the notebook at: drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook,
drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures,
and I think drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

The personal folders opened fine, the calendar had my events and
appointments but not my custom categories, but the worst part is the Contacts
will not
open.

I get an error message:

The address list could not be displayed. The contacts folder with this
address list could not be opened; it may have been moved or deleted, or you
do not have permissions. For information on how to remove this folder from
the Outlook Address Book, see microsoft Office Outlook help.

Do the contacts reside elsewhere??? And not in the .pst file?? I posted to
microsoft.public.outlook.contacts and Brian Tillman said dragging the file
could damage it. Is there a difference between dragging and copying and
pasting? Because microsoft.com
(http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx) says to
copy and paste.

Should I reinstall office and follow instructions for reconnecting old data
file (from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx )
and see what happens? Brian Tillman said, in the same post above, to attempt
to create a new profile. I'm not sure how to do that, I was following
instructions from someone else's site but it didn't work properly. Advice on
how-to (or not) attempt that?

I also tried to run the repair tool, scanpst.exe, on the .pst file and it
indicated internal errors (real or not according to microsoft.com's site for
XP and OL 2003), was able to make a .bak file of the .pst file, but the
process stopped responding on the repair...twice.

Thanks!
Carmen
 
Greta Grip said:
Had to reinstall XP Sp2 and then Office 2003 student/teacher edition
on new notebook. Copied the .pst and assorted files from an external
hard drive and pasted to the notebook at: drive:\Documents and
Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook,
drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Signatures, and I think drive:\Documents and
Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.
Click to expand...

Oops. Mail profile corruption ahread.
The personal folders opened fine, the calendar had my events and
appointments but not my custom categories, but the worst part is the
Contacts will not open.

I get an error message:

The address list could not be displayed. The contacts folder with
this address list could not be opened; it may have been moved or
deleted, or you do not have permissions. For information on how to
remove this folder from the Outlook Address Book, see microsoft
Office Outlook help.
Click to expand...

Your Outlook Address Book service doesn't know where to find your Contacts
folder because of the way you moved things. Click Tools>E-mail
Accounts>View or change existing directories or address books>Next. Select
the Outlook Address Book and click Change. Remove all the Contacts folders
tyou see there. Click Close, then Finish. Stop and restart Outlook.
Right-click your Contacts folder, choose Properties, select the Outlook
Address Book tab, check the box labeled "Show this folder as an e-mail
Address Book" and click OK. Stop and restart Outlook. Do things look
better now?
 
Something has changed, now when I open the address book I get no error
messages and it's empty. So the process Brian recommends below of : "Click
Tools>E-mail Accounts>View or change existing address books>Next. Select
the Outlook Address Book and click Change. Remove all the Contacts folders
you see there. Click Close, then Finish. " doesn't work now obviously
because nothing's there.

Maybe when I started the process of repairing the inbox with the inbox
repair tool scanpst.exe, something happened. Though as mentioned the process
wouldn't finish.

what next?
 
Brian,

Am I missing something? Microsoft explicitly indicates to copy and paste
your .pst file in their instructions for "Reconnect your old outlook data
file" , see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx,
and yet you seem to be saying that's a sure way to corrupt your file? :

"Moving your old data files
You installed Outlook on a new computer or a new hard disk and are ready to
start using your old data.

Use Windows Explorer to copy each Personal Folders file (.pst) (Personal
Folders file (.pst): Data file that stores your messages and other items on
your computer. You can assign a .pst file to be the default delivery location
for e-mail messages. You can use a .pst to organize and back up items for
safekeeping.) from its backup location (network drive or removable media,
such as a CD drive or portable hard disk) to the <drive>:\Documents and
Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook folder.
Although you can keep your data files in any folder, this is the default
folder that Outlook uses when creating .pst files."
 
Those instructions are wrong and always have been. I've implored Microsoft
to correct them, but they haven't seen fit to do so. If you copy another PST
file into the default directory the odds are you will overwrite another PST
file because Microsoft always creates PST files with the same name.
Instead you must copy the PST file to another directory and then use
Outlook's Data File Management utility to open it and set it as your
default.
 
Hi,

Tried creating new profile, didn't solve problem. Also as Brian Tillman
suggested, I tried alternating chkdsk & scandisk.exe. Finally scandisk said
no errors and didn't hang. Now, If you click on the address book button
while in say, mail view, it is still empty (the Show Names From field is
completely blank, while trying this in the new profile I created shows the
word "contacts" or address book in the Show Names field). (who knows, maybe
the contacts "button" was always populated...but I really think I checked
that a week ago....)

However, the lower left pane shows a button called "Mail", and under that a
"Calendar" button, then "Contacts", then "Tasks". If you click on the
Contacts button - it has tons of my name entries!!! How do I get them into
the "address book"? Because if I compose a new message and click the To:
field, for example, the Select Names field is completely empty.

Thanks!
Carmen


Russ Valentine said:
Those instructions are wrong and always have been. I've implored Microsoft
to correct them, but they haven't seen fit to do so. If you copy another PST
file into the default directory the odds are you will overwrite another PST
file because Microsoft always creates PST files with the same name.
Instead you must copy the PST file to another directory and then use
Outlook's Data File Management utility to open it and set it as your
default.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Greta Grip said:
Brian,

Am I missing something? Microsoft explicitly indicates to copy and paste
your .pst file in their instructions for "Reconnect your old outlook data
file" , see
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx,
and yet you seem to be saying that's a sure way to corrupt your file? :

"Moving your old data files
You installed Outlook on a new computer or a new hard disk and are ready
to
start using your old data.

Use Windows Explorer to copy each Personal Folders file (.pst) (Personal
Folders file (.pst): Data file that stores your messages and other items
on
your computer. You can assign a .pst file to be the default delivery
location
for e-mail messages. You can use a .pst to organize and back up items for
safekeeping.) from its backup location (network drive or removable media,
such as a CD drive or portable hard disk) to the <drive>:\Documents and
Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook folder.
Although you can keep your data files in any folder, this is the default
folder that Outlook uses when creating .pst files."
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Greta Grip said:
However, the lower left pane shows a button called "Mail", and under
that a "Calendar" button, then "Contacts", then "Tasks".
Click to expand...

Those are each separate views in the Navigation Pane ans will show only
those folders matching the type of view. The Mail view will show only mail
folders, the Contacts view will show only Contacts folders, etc.
If you
click on the Contacts button - it has tons of my name entries!!! How
do I get them into the "address book"? Because if I compose a new
message and click the To: field, for example, the Select Names field
is completely empty.
Click to expand...

Select a vew, like Contacts or Folder List that displays your COntacts
folders. RIght-click each and choose Properties. Select the Outlook
Address Book tab and check the box labeled "Show this folder as an e-mail
Address Book".
 
Hi Brian,

Thanks. In my original profile, the "Show this folder as an e-mail Address
Book" box as you describe below, is greyed out (hence un-selectable). In the
new profile I created, I was able to select it, but it still didn't populate
the address book one views using the address book button...

Carmen
 
Greta Grip said:
Thanks. In my original profile, the "Show this folder as an e-mail
Address Book" box as you describe below, is greyed out (hence
un-selectable). In the new profile I created, I was able to select
it, but it still didn't populate the address book one views using the
address book button...
Click to expand...

Are you sure your Address Book is pointing at the correct Contacts folder?
Tools>Options in the ADdress Book interface.
 
Sorry, I don't understand what you mean. Where is the address book interface
you're speaking of? I don't see a place to point the address book to another
contacts folder.

thanks
 
Greta Grip said:
Sorry, I don't understand what you mean. Where is the address book
interface you're speaking of?
Click to expand...

Click the Address Book icon on the Standard toolbar or click Tools>Address
Book.
I don't see a place to point the
address book to another contacts folder.
Click to expand...

Click Tools>Options after starting the address book.
 
Okay, I had checked that out. Don't know how to make sure it's pointing to
the correct contacts. Currently the Address Book, Tools>Options shows:

Shows this address list first:
(this is empty and the pull down menu is also empty)

Keep Personal addresses in:
(ditto, all empty)

THe last field is also empty. ANd all buttons at the bottom are greyed out:
Add, Remove, Properties.

Thanks.
 
Greta Grip said:
Okay, I had checked that out. Don't know how to make sure it's
pointing to the correct contacts. Currently the Address Book,
Tools>Options shows:

Shows this address list first:
(this is empty and the pull down menu is also empty)

Keep Personal addresses in:
(ditto, all empty)

THe last field is also empty. ANd all buttons at the bottom are
greyed out: Add, Remove, Properties.
Click to expand...

Then you don't have the Outlook Address Book service in your mail profile.
Click Tools>E-mail Accounts>Add a new directory or address book>Next.
Select Additional ADdress Books and click Next. Select Outlook Address Book
and click Next, then Finish. Stop and restart Outlook. Now right-click
your Contacts folder and choose Properties. Select the Outlook Address Book
tab and make sure the box labeled "Show this folder an an e-mail Address
Book" is checked. Click OK (or Close, I can't remember).
 
It worked!!!!!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Carmen

p.s. now on to the other small configuration issues.
 
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