Being the swell guy that I am, I updated my wife's Windows ME computer with Windows XP. It worked wonderfully for about a week before crashing into an unbootable form. Apparently FAT32 and NTFS didn't get along too well.

Anyway, I removed the hard drive and copied it onto another hard drive before reformatting and reinstalling XP. The computer works great now. No problems. I reloaded all software and files.

Now my question: After reinstalling Outlook, where do I find all of the address and contact information that used to be in there? I copied the entire hard drive and can't seem to figure out where those files were stored and how to get those files back.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

Search on *.pab and *.pst I believe those are the two files you need.

 

Yes, NSXNEXT is right. You .pab file is you <b>P</b>ersonal <b>A</b>ddress <b>Book</b> and you .pst is the file that contains all your mail that you have read/sent. Once you have those files you can rebuild your profile and re-import them without a problem.

 

D@mn I really am good for something.

 

Thanks guys. I searched for .pst and .pab and unfortunately got nothing. I even tried unhiding all file extensions and still got nothing. Although all my files seem to be intact, these files do not exist.

Such is life. I just went to the Microsoft Office website and downloaded a utility that backs up the address book. After she re enters her information, we will definitely use this utility.

Thanks again!

 

This may seem like a silly solution, but you might want to try sending an Outlook message with a completely foreigh word (glampwich, beevilworst?), then use the "search" facility to find it. It may take some time, but you should be able to discern the file/folder it is in.

Unless you use glampwich or beevilworst in day-to-day messages.

 

I'm getting hungry...

That was an excellent idea. I tried it, but to no avail. I believe that Outlook somehow creates a single file of all the information. It is not like searching through word documents or spreadsheets for a particular word. Thanks for the suggestion.

There is the possibility that the file simply does not exist. I can't imagine how that would be, though. I was able to find all other files I searched for after copying the drive. Maybe the Outlook files do not transfer well from FAT32 to NFTS.

Either way, this has been a great learning experience.

 

Here's some more that may help:

If you are searching from Windows XP, make sure in the "More advanced options" you turn on "Search system folders" and "search hidden files and folders".

Also, are we talking about Outlook or Outlook Express? Outlook Express saves things in .DBX format, so you should be looking for those files. They are definitely in hidden folders, so again make sure you have that option turned on.


Hope this helps!

Paul

 

Are you using Outlook 97/98/2000/XP or Outlook Express?

Outlook express and Outlook store their information differently. I don't beileve Outlook express uses either PAB or PST files.

Here's a link for how to do a backup/restore of Outlook Express:

(link didn't work, so go to http://search.microsoft.com and search for q270670)

Unfortunately, I do not know where this information is actually stored (i.e. what filename or extension). Anyone out there know this information? (Just read your post - thanks Seqiro!)

Hope this helps.

 

You are all very clever! I am using Outklook 2000. After trying everything all of you suggested and not finding any appropriate files I noticed something interesting...There is no sign of Outlook having been there. When I checked the copied disk, all of my desktop icons were there except for Outlook. In the programs folder, all are there except for Outlook. I bet that because Outlook was running when the computer crashed, it corrupted the pst files when Windows itself got corrupted.

I am still open to new suggestions, but it might be time to close this technical support issue.

Thanks again to all who tried to help. The moral of the story for anyone upgrading to Windows XP...I would save all of your important data and files and do a clean operating system install instead of loading XP on top of any other system. Then simply reinstall all of your applications and files. Of course it will take a little more time, but you may save yourself a lot of time and headaches in the future.

 

DEFINITELY do a clean install of XP. People have been having major problems upgrading. REALLY smart move to get rid of ME though.

 

Now you tell me...