Duplicate files in Outlook 2003

[Tarek]

Duplicate files in Outlook 2003
--------------------------------------------
I am using Windows XP and was using Outlook XP
successfully for several years.
I recently upgraded to Office 2003 which includes the
much improved Outlook 2003.

However I faced some problems when converting my PST
files from the old format (97-2002) to the new format of
OL2003.

I am now stuck with a number of Outlook Personal folders
which appear in my "Folders List" and refuse to be
deleted or closed.
These were Personal Folders originally linked to actual
PST files.
Those Physical PST files got deleted first, without
removing (or closing) the items from the Folder list in
Outlook.
Now there is no way to delete or close these Personnel
Folders in Outlook, trying to do so results in an error
message :
"The Operation Failed. An object could not be found"

I have tried to create dummy PST files using the same
names as those existed: that works fine to open these
dummy folders in outlook, but still refuses to close or
delete any of these folders.

The files do not show up in the Data files list
within "Data File Management..." nor do they show up in
the profile data file list in "Control Panel" - "Mail"
I have also reinstalling office 2003 totally, but
Outlook still somehow remembers the existing files

Is there another file hidden somewhere that I need to get
rid of to make outlook really forget those once-existed
PST files ?

Best Regards,
Tarek

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Now you'll have to use the registry.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook

Within the Outlook folder, there are a bunch of folders with long
hexadecimal values for names -- those are the ones you need to look in to
see if you can find the ghost .PST names. If you delete one of the keys and
it points to your real .PST file instead of one of the ghosts, it's not the
end of the world -- your data won't be gone. The worst you would have to do
is recreate your Outlook profile.