I desparately need some Outlook tech support
 

My laptop crashed last night due to overheating. My last Outlook pst backup was in August, so I'm good until then. Problem is I've lost all the emails about Warren's fund raising drive from the last few days.

I pulled the HD out of the laptop and bought a case to make it a USB drive to plug into my desktop. The HD is still good, but I can't find the folder under >program files>Office that the raw emails are in so that I can import them. I've set up Outlook on the desktop - just need to grab the emails from laptop HD.

Can someone guide me through this in laymans terms? thx

Mark, I am guessing you save your data locally in a PST file. And you are running XP.

Try looking in C:\Documents and Setting\"YourUserName\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

Hal

I don't know how Outlook stores its data, but trying doing a search.

Go to Start-->Search-->All Files and folders

Type something like "Warren" in "A word or phrase in the file".

Oh, and make sure you have "Show hidden files and folders" selected. To check:

In your search screen, go to Tools-->Folder Options-->View

Search the hard drive (all files and folders) for a file name "*.pst" without the quotes. That is where they should be, it is usually stored here:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Then you can use outlook on your desktop to open that file and retrieve whatever you want via the "file>open>Outlook datafile"

Best of luck.

Here is a sreen shot of the folder I'm in. I suspect it's one of the folders around the Outlook folder but don't know which one or how to access.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1198979598.jpg

You could also try opening files with notepad and seeing what is in them.

Mark, did you look in the locations Mikester and I suggested? They are the 2 default locations Outlook might use. If nothing else, do a search for *.PST . Then from Outlook, go to File\Open\Other User's Folder. Drill to the PST file you find in the Search.

Halm and Mike,
The most recent emails have not been manually saved as a .pst. Does Outlook keep them stored in a .pst by default. Tryed searching for a pst and it came up with my backup from August.

Tried to get "other users folder and it is grayed out.

Mark, some good advice has been given here, but you'll probably have to un-hide the files before you can get to them. Read on...

1. Inside Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer, WINDOWS Explorer) choose TOOLS, and then FOLDER OPTIONS.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1198981198.jpg

2. Choose the VIEW tab and select SHOW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1198981269.jpg

3. Click on OK until you are back to Windows Explorer and then you should be able to navigate to the location where your Outlook files (.PST) are located. Probably something like C:\Documents and Settings\mwilson\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1198981421.jpg

You're looking for the one named OUTLOOK.PST.

Randy

Open Documents and Settings folder > Tools (in toolbar) > Folder Options > View > Hidden Files and Folders > Check Show Hidden Files and Folders

Documents and Setting Folder > Your User Name > Local Settings (folder is light as it was most likely a hidden folder) > Application Data > Microsoft > Outlook > Outlook Data File

Randy beat me to it as I was firing up the work PC laptop. Home is Mac based...

From the search screen or from a folder window:

Go to Tools-->Folder Options-->View

Uncheck "Hide protected operating system files"

The L drive is the one from the laptop. Where can I get to the Documents and settings?

Tried this and no luck
L:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1198981577.jpg

OK - got the folders unhidden toggled on. Doing the search again.

Did you perform steps 1 and 2 in my post to un-hide your hidden files?

Randy

Randy - yes, here is screenshot

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1198983563.jpg

Here is the search result. It's still just finding the backups that I made.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1198983634.jpg

Sorry if I'm being dense. I'm a little brain dead right now with all this other going on.

Go back to my first post. Try searching for "Warren" or some other unique term that you know is in a recent e-mail in the text of files.

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

trying that again

Hal

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

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?

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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

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?

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.

Maybe look here
http://www.sitedeveloper.ws/images/explorer.gif

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

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

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...

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.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1199028288.jpg

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

Cool, glad that you found it.

Vista, that explains the different directory structure.

Thanks for the update.

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. :mad:

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

Randy