I desparately need some Outlook tech support

Originally Posted by Halm

Mark, 1.) Do you connect to a corporate email server? 2.) Are you using Outlook 2007 in Cached Mode?

Hal

No, I'm on my home dsl connection. I'm on Office 2003.

[deanp]

I am certainly not an IT guy (or really a PC guy for that matter) but -

The HD you are now using as a removable drive presumably was the only drive in the laptop and still has the OS and system files on it.

Is it possible that the PC you now have the removable drive hooked up to cannot see the 'hidden' system / application data files on the removable drive as they would conflict?

Is it possible to make the removable drive "L" in this case the start-up disk to see if you can get the Documents and Settings folder to be visible?

If you go to My Computer on the PC you are working on and follow the steps, can you find the Outlook Data file using the procedure shown?

What is in the Documents folder under the "L" drive, is this your actual documents folder?

[Halm]

Okay, what is the source of your email? Hotmail, AOL, etc? And Cached Mode is also available with Outlook 2003, are you using it? If so try a search for an OST file. That can be converted to a PST file and imported.

[rcecale]

Good call on the .OST file, Hal. That's where I would have gone next. But, since Mark isn't connecting to an Exchange Server, it may not be there either.

Randy

Originally Posted by Halm

Okay, what is the source of your email? Hotmail, AOL, etc? And Cached Mode is also available with Outlook 2003, are you using it? If so try a search for an OST file. That can be converted to a PST file and imported.

I'm connected to sbcglobal via pop. Don't know anything about cached mode. I'll search for ost

[Halm]

I am trying to figure out what is happening. The email is either on a server (Exchange/POP3/IMAP) or on the hard drive as a PST/OST file. Randy, can you think of some other option?

[Halm]

Mark, maybe we'll get lucky. Cached Mode is on by default.

No luck with ost. Pretty sure emails are not cached on a server. I can view fresh emails on via sbcglobal webmail, but as soon as I fire up outlook, it downloads onto my pc.

[rcecale]

If the e-mails are still being stored on the server at SBC, one thing Mark could try would be to configure Outlook Express to access those e-mails. Before connecting and actually downloading the e-mails, he'll want to go into the account settings and select the option to leave the e-mails on the server after being downloaded. that way he'll still have access to them from another computer.

Or, something easier...Mark, can you log into your e-mail on the SBC website and access them there? Try doing that before you do anything with Outlook Express.

Randy

Originally Posted by rcecale

If the e-mails are still being stored on the server at SBC, one thing Mark could try would be to configure Outlook Express to access those e-mails. Before connecting and actually downloading the e-mails, he'll want to go into the account settings and select the option to leave the e-mails on the server after being downloaded. that way he'll still have access to them from another computer.

Or, something easier...Mark, can you log into your e-mail on the SBC website and access them there? Try doing that before you do anything with Outlook Express.

Randy

No luck. Nothing on the server. SBC global hasn't saved anything.

OK, My eyes are crossed. Gotta hit the hay for tonight. Any other ideas you guys come up with, I'll try tomorrow. Thanks very much for the help.
M

[slodave]

You are positive that you were last using Outlook and not Outlook Express?

As for line:
L:\Users\MWilson\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Why no "Documents and Settings" directory? What's the Laptop OS - Vista?

[masraum]

Mark, try searching for "outlook". I'd expect you to get 2-4 hits that are directories. In those hits should be the default .pst file.

Also, you can try searching for "local settings" which should then contain a folder for "Application data" then "microsoft" then "outlook".

In every XP system that I've ever seen, the "C:\" drive has a folder called "documents and settings" which contains a couple of folders for the various usernames associated with the system. In the folders for the various users, most user data (like a pst) is contained in the folder that I mention above.

I've never seen an installation like yours where there doesn't seem to be a "documents and settings" but there is a "users". I just don't know. That's weird.

[masraum]

Maybe look here


I also found this online

well i thought it was in t Program Files so I was searching all over. It wasn't showing up in search because in XP, the default is to exclude hidden files in search. Guess what this file registers as? you guessed it!
a hidden file.

I also found this online. It may be useful to someone to avoid this sort of problem.

How to automate the back up of .pst files with the Personal Folder Backup utility
Microsoft has released a utility to automate the backup of your personal folders (.pst) file. The utility can be downloaded from the following Microsoft Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8B081F3A-B7D0-4B16-B8AF-5A6322F4FD01&displaylang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8B081F3A-B7D0-4B16-B8AF-5A6322F4FD01&displaylang=en)
For more information about the Personal Folder Backup utility, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
238782 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/238782/) How to automatically backup your personal folders file
How to back up Outlook settings files
If you have customized settings that you want to replicate on another computer by using Outlook, you may want to include the following files in your back up as well as the personal folders (.pst) file:
• Outcmd.dat - This file stores toolbar and menu settings.
• .fav - This is your Favorites file that includes the settings for the Outlook bar.
• .nk2 - This file stores the NickNames for AutoComplete.
Note If you use Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor, signatures are stored in the Normal.dot file as AutoText entries. You should back up this file also.

Folder design properties include permissions, filters, description, forms, and views are integrated into the folders on which they were created. If you export items from one personal folders (.pst) file to another, design properties are not maintained. To back this information up, see the "Copy the design of a folder" topic in Microsoft Office Outlook Help.

If you have created customized signatures that you want to replicate to another computer by using Outlook, you may want to back up all custom signature files located in the following folder:
Drive:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures
where Drive represents the drive that Outlook was installed to and Username represents the user name that Outlook was installed under.

Each individual signature has its own file and uses the same name as the signature you used when you created it. For example, if you created a signature named MySig, the following files are created in the Signatures folder:
MySig.htm - This file stores the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) auto signature.

MySig.rtf - This file stores the Microsoft Outlook Rich Text Format (RTF) Auto signature.

MySig.txt - This file stores the plain text format Auto signature.

And possibly helpful
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.asp

[rcecale]

Originally Posted by slodave

Why no "Documents and Settings" directory? What's the Laptop OS - Vista?

Dave,

Looking at the screenshots Mark posted, it certainly looks like XP. I even tried googling Outlook running on XP Home Edition, thinking maybe "Home" used a different file structure, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Like Steve mentions, I've never seen a structure like that...one that doesn't utilize the "Documents and Settings" folders.

Steve, doing a search for "Outlook.*" is a good call.

Randy

[slodave]

Originally Posted by rcecale

Dave,

Looking at the screenshots Mark posted, it certainly looks like XP. I even tried googling Outlook running on XP Home Edition, thinking maybe "Home" used a different file structure, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Like Steve mentions, I've never seen a structure like that...one that doesn't utilize the "Documents and Settings" folders.

Steve, doing a search for "Outlook.*" is a good call.

Randy

Remember, he connected his laptop HDD to another computer and did screen captures. I am leaning towards Windows ME...

[HarryD]

Mark:

Try the following:

1-Open WINDOWS EXPLORER
2-Find the drive which you think has your Outlook file.
3-Do a search for all files with the extension *.pst
4-You should find a fairly large file called outlook.pst. That is your outlook data file.
5-Write down the full address.
6-Open Outlook
7-Under File -> Open => Click on "Outlook Data file"
8-A file seletion menu will open. Browse tot he .pst file you found earlier and click on this.
9-In your "Navigation Plane" you will see a new set of folders under the "standard mail" filders. This is the file you just opened.

Good luck.

I knew it was simple and I was just too tired last night to find it. Did the search for "Outlook" and results came back with no .pst folder. In the search pane, at the bottom, there was an option to search all files and folders, so some of them were still hidden on the "L" drive even though I had toggled "show all files and folders" to on. This is the search screen that came back. Just shows that you guys were right back at the first of the thread telling me to find the pst. I have it importing now.

Thanks to all for the help.

BTW - for reference, the laptop was running Vista home and desktop is an XP machine.

[masraum]

Cool, glad that you found it.

Vista, that explains the different directory structure.

Thanks for the update.

[rcecale]

Outstanding work, Mark! Glad you got it all sorted out.

+1 on the Vista comment by Steve. I swear, MS changed so many things around, for no apparent reason, when they came out with Vista.

Anyway, glad you got it working. Good on ya!!!

Randy