Where does Outlook 2003 store email messages on the C drive?

[Buddha]

I've been using an XP Professional machine with Office 2003 and MS Outlook
(not Outlook Express) as my email program. I recently changed from a single
default Administrator account to naming myself as administrator and setting
up a guest account. Once I did that, among other things, I could no longer
access my emails. I've worked through the other issues that arose, but I'm
stumped at recovering all the emails.

I imported my most recent backup .pst file I had created about seven weeks
ago and recovered all my emails, except, of course, for the last seven weeks
worth that hadn't been backed up. That's not good enough - I need the emails
from the past seven weeks also, if there's any way to find them.

Can anyone tell me in what directory the old administrator account emails
would have been stored on the C drive and what sort of file extension the
emails would have?

Thanks!

 

[Henry Craven {SBS-MVP}]

By default it will be in:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

You should have an Outlook.pst file and may have an Archive.pst file

You can use File > Import & Export

Import from another Program or file
Personal Folder file (.pst) to import all your data..

Choose to import into the same folder and -not- to import duplicates.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

NEVER import native Outlook data. Use Outlook's File->Open->Outlook Data File. Use drag and drop to move items from the old to the new .pst file.

Import/Export is never the correct method to migrate Outlook data. It would be the same as using Import to open a Word document in Word. Import/Export is meant to translate non-Outlook data like a .csv or .txt file to Outlook's file structure.


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Henry Craven {SBS-MVP} asked:

| By default it will be in:
| C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application
| Data\Microsoft\Outlook.
|
| You should have an Outlook.pst file and may have an Archive.pst file
|
| You can use File > Import & Export
| > Import from another Program or file
| > Personal Folder file (.pst) to import all your data..
|
| Choose to import into the same folder and -not- to import duplicates.
|
| || I've been using an XP Professional machine with Office 2003 and MS
|| Outlook (not Outlook Express) as my email program. I recently
|| changed from a single
|| default Administrator account to naming myself as administrator and
|| setting
|| up a guest account. Once I did that, among other things, I could no
|| longer
|| access my emails. I've worked through the other issues that arose,
|| but I'm
|| stumped at recovering all the emails.
||
|| I imported my most recent backup .pst file I had created about seven
|| weeks ago and recovered all my emails, except, of course, for the
|| last seven weeks
|| worth that hadn't been backed up. That's not good enough - I need
|| the emails
|| from the past seven weeks also, if there's any way to find them.
||
|| Can anyone tell me in what directory the old administrator account
|| emails would have been stored on the C drive and what sort of file
|| extension the emails would have?
||
|| Thanks!

 

[Buddha]

Thanks, Henry and Milly.

Henry, the data is where you suggested it would be. Thanks!

What Henry says makes sense. As I said in my original post, I've made
backups of my emails previously, and it's always been by exporting to a pst
file on a backup data drive. That's why I was able to restore all my emails
except for the ones I've sent and reeceived since the last backup seven weeks
ago.

I'm curious, Milly, why you suggest that one should never import or export
the data in this manner. It seems to work fine. What am I missing here? I
guess, more importantly, what is it doing bad to my data or my computer?

Thanks in advance

Buddha

NEVER import native Outlook data. Use Outlook's File->Open->Outlook Data File. Use drag and drop to move items from the old to the new .pst file.

Import/Export is never the correct method to migrate Outlook data. It would be the same as using Import to open a Word document in Word. Import/Export is meant to translate non-Outlook data like a .csv or .txt file to Outlook's file structure.


--Â
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Henry Craven {SBS-MVP} asked:

| By default it will be in:
| C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application
| Data\Microsoft\Outlook.
|
| You should have an Outlook.pst file and may have an Archive.pst file
|
| You can use File > Import & Export
| > Import from another Program or file
| > Personal Folder file (.pst) to import all your data..
|
| Choose to import into the same folder and -not- to import duplicates.
|
| || I've been using an XP Professional machine with Office 2003 and MS
|| Outlook (not Outlook Express) as my email program. I recently
|| changed from a single
|| default Administrator account to naming myself as administrator and
|| setting
|| up a guest account. Once I did that, among other things, I could no
|| longer
|| access my emails. I've worked through the other issues that arose,
|| but I'm
|| stumped at recovering all the emails.
||
|| I imported my most recent backup .pst file I had created about seven
|| weeks ago and recovered all my emails, except, of course, for the
|| last seven weeks
|| worth that hadn't been backed up. That's not good enough - I need
|| the emails
|| from the past seven weeks also, if there's any way to find them.
||
|| Can anyone tell me in what directory the old administrator account
|| emails would have been stored on the C drive and what sort of file
|| extension the emails would have?
||
|| Thanks!

 

[Brian Tillman]

What Henry says makes sense. As I said in my original post, I've made
backups of my emails previously, and it's always been by exporting to
a pst file on a backup data drive. That's why I was able to restore
all my emails except for the ones I've sent and reeceived since the
last backup seven weeks ago.

Do not export to make a backup. Simply copy the original PST.

I'm curious, Milly, why you suggest that one should never import or
export the data in this manner. It seems to work fine. What am I
missing here? I guess, more importantly, what is it doing bad to my
data or my computer?

Exporting and importing loses data, such as Distributions Lists, the
connection between contacts and other items, and other data as has been
documented in this newsgroup numerous times.

 

[Pat Willener]

Making a backup of a personal folders file is easiest done by copying
the PST file, or use a backup tool such as Windows ntbackup.exe; note
that Outlook must be closed when you do that.

To restore a backed-up file it should simply be copied back to the
original location, then opened with Outlook.

Outlook's Export and Import functions rearrange all data in the PST
file, and some data is actually lost in the process (such as folder
settings, or user fields). It also take very much longer to export or
import because, of course, all data is rearranged.

The idea of Export and Import, as Milly already pointed out, is to
export or import non-Outlook data. I perfectly don't understand why the
developers even included an option to export/import to/from PST files.

Thanks, Henry and Milly.

Henry, the data is where you suggested it would be. Thanks!

What Henry says makes sense. As I said in my original post, I've made
backups of my emails previously, and it's always been by exporting to apst
file on a backup data drive. That's why I was able to restore all my emails
except for the ones I've sent and reeceived since the last backup sevenweeks
ago.

I'm curious, Milly, why you suggest that one should never import or export
the data in this manner. It seems to work fine. What am I missing here? I
guess, more importantly, what is it doing bad to my data or my computer?

Thanks in advance

Buddha

NEVER import native Outlook data. Use Outlook's File->Open->Outlook Data File. Use drag and drop to move items from the old to the new .pst file.

Import/Export is never the correct method to migrate Outlook data. Itwould be the same as using Import to open a Word document in Word. Import/Export is meant to translate non-Outlook data like a .csv or .txt fileto Outlook's file structure.


--Â
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Henry Craven {SBS-MVP} asked:

| By default it will be in:
| C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application
| Data\Microsoft\Outlook.
|
| You should have an Outlook.pst file and may have an Archive.pst file
|
| You can use File > Import & Export
| > Import from another Program or file
| > Personal Folder file (.pst) to import all your data..
|
| Choose to import into the same folder and -not- to import duplicates.
|
| || I've been using an XP Professional machine with Office 2003 and MS
|| Outlook (not Outlook Express) as my email program. I recently
|| changed from a single
|| default Administrator account to naming myself as administrator and
|| setting
|| up a guest account. Once I did that, among other things, I could no
|| longer
|| access my emails. I've worked through the other issues that arose,
|| but I'm
|| stumped at recovering all the emails.
||
|| I imported my most recent backup .pst file I had created about seven
|| weeks ago and recovered all my emails, except, of course, for the
|| last seven weeks
|| worth that hadn't been backed up. That's not good enough - I need
|| the emails
|| from the past seven weeks also, if there's any way to find them.
||
|| Can anyone tell me in what directory the old administrator account
|| emails would have been stored on the C drive and what sort of file
|| extension the emails would have?
||
|| Thanks!

 

[Henry Craven {SBS-MVP}]

I respect your Outlook MVP status, but WHY ????
I've been doing it for years on many dozens of systems and never had an real
issue

The facility to import from .pst is -there-.
The Ability to Filter out duplicates and select folders to import
is -there-.
It's -there-by design.

Copying files between linked .pst files is pain in the tush - particularly
when you have to filter from a large amount of mail in a large number of
folders...similarly for Calendar, to do items etc and how do you easily
manually find all the contact in one contact folder that aren't in your
import .pst. Outlook does that for you automatically .....

( Sorry, but the word analogy doesn't fly .... You're importing DATA from
one database into another - pure and simple. Databases have the ability to
be compare and filter datasets and do bulk imports .To NOT use that facility
is IMHO insanity.)
--
Henry Craven {SBS-MVP}


"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
NEVER import native Outlook data. Use Outlook's File->Open->Outlook Data
File. Use drag and drop to move items from the old to the new .pst file.

Import/Export is never the correct method to migrate Outlook data. It would
be the same as using Import to open a Word document in Word. Import/Export
is meant to translate non-Outlook data like a .csv or .txt file to Outlook's
file structure.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Importing regularly loses:

Custom forms
Connections between contacts and activities
Connections between contacts birthdays/anniversaries and calendar
Received dates on emails
Distribution lists
etc.

I suppose if you don't mind losing this kind of data and rebuilding it every time you import, then you are welcome to continue importing Outlook data when it is entirely unnecessary.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Henry Craven {SBS-MVP} asked:

| I respect your Outlook MVP status, but WHY ????
| I've been doing it for years on many dozens of systems and never had
| an real issue
|
| The facility to import from .pst is -there-.
| The Ability to Filter out duplicates and select folders to import
| is -there-.
| It's -there-by design.
|
| Copying files between linked .pst files is pain in the tush -
| particularly when you have to filter from a large amount of mail in a
| large number of folders...similarly for Calendar, to do items etc and
| how do you easily manually find all the contact in one contact folder
| that aren't in your import .pst. Outlook does that for you
| automatically .....
|
| ( Sorry, but the word analogy doesn't fly .... You're importing DATA
| from one database into another - pure and simple. Databases have the
| ability to be compare and filter datasets and do bulk imports .To NOT
| use that facility is IMHO insanity.)

 

[Henry Craven {SBS-MVP}]

Quite a list you have there.
Hope you and the others are kicking some serious Dev Team butt to get that
all fixed.

Somehow I can't see myself dragging and dropping the Hundreds of .pst into
Exchange mailboxes.
I and I'm sure thousands of other ITs will continue to use Import or
Exmerge.

--
Henry Craven {SBS-MVP}


"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
Importing regularly loses:

Custom forms
Connections between contacts and activities
Connections between contacts birthdays/anniversaries and calendar
Received dates on emails
Distribution lists
etc.

I suppose if you don't mind losing this kind of data and rebuilding it every
time you import, then you are welcome to continue importing Outlook data
when it is entirely unnecessary.

 

[Gordon]

Somehow I can't see myself dragging and dropping the Hundreds of .pst into
Exchange mailboxes.

But that is PRECISELY the sort of function that the Import/export function
ISs designed to do! What it is NOT designed to do, is to import and export
to and from files of the SAME type, ie pst files!

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Why oh why are you using .pst files when you have Exchange?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Henry Craven {SBS-MVP} asked:

| Quite a list you have there.
| Hope you and the others are kicking some serious Dev Team butt to get
| that all fixed.
|
| Somehow I can't see myself dragging and dropping the Hundreds of .pst
| into Exchange mailboxes.
| I and I'm sure thousands of other ITs will continue to use Import or
| Exmerge.

 

[Henry Craven {SBS-MVP}]

We don't. .... but we do need to get all those .pst files into the Exchange
mailboxes for all those p-2-p Workgroups that are using Exchange for the
first time.

--
Henry Craven {SBS-MVP}


"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
Why oh why are you using .pst files when you have Exchange?