Migrating from Outlook Express 6 to Outlook 2002?

[R]

I've used OE for many years & am basically happpy with it. I just got a
pocket PC, which will only interface with Outlook, and I'm trying to decide
if I want to migrate things to Outlook. This would be OE6 to Outlook 2002.
I did the basic migration, and it looks fairly good (not perfect).

I'd like to learn something about the pros & cons of switching over to
Outlook - I mean for the parts of the programs that are parallel (email
mainly, I guess).

Can anyone suggest a website or other source of general info to help me with
this? I may have more specific questions if I go forward with this, & I'll
post separate threads when & if I get there. tia

 

[PA Bear]

Differences Between Outlook and Outlook Express
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q257824
--
OL-specific newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.general

HTH - Please Reply to This Thread

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE), AH-VSOP

AumHa Forums
http://forum.mvps.org/

What You Should Know About Spyware
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/twc/privacy/spyware.mspx

 

[R]

Thanks, that's a good start for me.

Here's a more specific question about synchronizing between a home & work
desktop.

Currently, with OE, I keep the messages synchronized by copying the files
that correspond to the OE folders (*.dbx files) back & forth between
computers. (I have some stand-alone programs for this [Beyond Compare &
Second Copy] & use a USB flash pen drive. I synchronize my address file in
the same fashion.) I have messages organized in heirarchical year-folders
that go back many years, so they're available to me, but I only need to
synchronize recent messages back & forth because the old ones don't change.

I see that Outlook stores all data in one file, Outlook.pst, if I'm not
mistaken. That file became 350MB when I imported my OE data. I don't want
to copy that whole thing back & forth. I see that there's an autoarchive
function in Outlook that removes old messages in some way. Can anyone tell
me whether I'd use autoarchive to -
- reduce the size of a file I'd transport back & forth (home/work) to
synchronize recent emails
- still have immediate access to older emails from within the Outlook
program.

Or is there another, better way to keep my home & work machines synchronized
in Outlook. I poked around the help topics, but the answers aren't clear to
me yet. Weblinks to better descriptions are fine. tia

 

[PA Bear]

See if OE Freebie Backup (by MVP "Majik") might suit:

OE Freebie Backup
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx

Majik writes:
<paste>
Backup and archiving are two separate things that people sometimes confuse
each other with. What it sounds like you are wanting to do is archive the
old message stores for possible later retrieval. Usually archiving is a way
to store the old messages, clear them from the current setup and basically
start over with empty files. Should you have a need to restore those files,
you can simply import them into OE.

Backup is done in case you have a problem and need to restore the data as it
was.

Backing up files should be done in a way that you understand what and where
the files are, how long you want to retain them, etc.

Two different forms of backup (others may have additonal plans):

1) Make a backup of the current data. (Backup1)
The next time you backup the data, put it in a separate folder.
(Backup2)
The next time you backup the data, put it in a separate folder again.
(Backup3)
The next time you backup, overwrite Backup1
The next time you backup, overwrite Backup2
The next time you backup, overwrite Backup3
The next time you backup, overwrite Backup1
The next time you backup, overwrite Backup2
The next time you backup, overwrite Backup3
&c.

You always keep the last three backups for that just in case problem.

2) Make a backup to a different folder for each backup, never overwriting
the previous.

One idea: I've got several clients doing now for backing up their messages
is to create a folder within OE and name it the month (March2004) of the
backup. They can easily copy just that one DBX file and put it on CD then
delete it from within OE. When they need it, they can easily then make a
new folder of the same name, open it to create the dbx file required to get
it in the Folders.dbx file), close OE, then copy the backed up dbx file over
the existing one (removing the read only attribute) then restarting OE.
Their messages are there waiting on them then and when they finish, all they
have to do is delete the folder in OE. They won't be adding messages to that
dbx file so it's no big deal when they delete it.
</paste>
--
~PA Bear

Thanks, that's a good start for me.

Here's a more specific question about synchronizing between a home & work
desktop.

Currently, with OE, I keep the messages synchronized by copying the files
that correspond to the OE folders (*.dbx files) back & forth between
computers. (I have some stand-alone programs for this [Beyond Compare &
Second Copy] & use a USB flash pen drive. I synchronize my address file
in the same fashion.) I have messages organized in heirarchical
year-folders that go back many years, so they're available to me, but I
only need to synchronize recent messages back & forth because the old
ones don't change.

I see that Outlook stores all data in one file, Outlook.pst, if I'm not
mistaken. That file became 350MB when I imported my OE data. I don't
want to copy that whole thing back & forth. I see that there's an
autoarchive function in Outlook that removes old messages in some way.
Can anyone tell me whether I'd use autoarchive to -
- reduce the size of a file I'd transport back & forth (home/work) to
synchronize recent emails
- still have immediate access to older emails from within the Outlook
program.

Or is there another, better way to keep my home & work machines
synchronized in Outlook. I poked around the help topics, but the answers
aren't clear to me yet. Weblinks to better descriptions are fine. tia

Differences Between Outlook and Outlook Express
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q257824
--
OL-specific newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.general

HTH - Please Reply to This Thread

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE), AH-VSOP

AumHa Forums
http://forum.mvps.org/

What You Should Know About Spyware
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/twc/privacy/spyware.mspx

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

http://www.slipstick.com is the best resource for Outlook information.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After searching google.groups.com and finding no answer, R asked:

| I've used OE for many years & am basically happpy with it. I just
| got a pocket PC, which will only interface with Outlook, and I'm
| trying to decide if I want to migrate things to Outlook. This would
| be OE6 to Outlook 2002. I did the basic migration, and it looks
| fairly good (not perfect).
|
| I'd like to learn something about the pros & cons of switching over to
| Outlook - I mean for the parts of the programs that are parallel
| (email mainly, I guess).
|
| Can anyone suggest a website or other source of general info to help
| me with this? I may have more specific questions if I go forward
| with this, & I'll post separate threads when & if I get there. tia

 

[Brian Tillman]

I see that Outlook stores all data in one file, Outlook.pst, if I'm
not mistaken.

All active data, yes, but you can have as many PSTs as you want, with older
data being stored in other PSTs. Put one year's folders in one PST, another
year's folders in a second, and so on.

That file became 350MB when I imported my OE data.

Don't export all the data to one PST. When exporting from OE, you have the
opportunity to select which set of folders in OE you'd like to export.
First, in OL, create a PST to hold the messages you are about to export from
OE. Make it your default delivery location. Next, in OE, select the subset
of folders you wish to export and export them to OL. They'll get stored in
the default delivery PST. Then, in Outlook, create a new PST and make it
your default delivery location. GO back to OE and export another subset of
folders for that PST. Continue until you've exported all your OE messages
and have structured them in OL the way you wish. Your last export should be
the messages you wish to to have active. IN OL, you probably had a PST that
was the one created originally. If you were staring fresh, that PST would
have been empty, except for the predefined folders. If you've already
exported from OE to it, just delete everything in it prior to your export of
the current info in OE and compact it so it's as small as it can be and then
export your current OE stuff. Otherwise, create one last PST before
exporting the current stuff and leave it as your default delivery location
in OL, closing the very first PST you had (the 350 Mb one) and deleting it.

Or is there another, better way to keep my home & work machines
synchronized in Outlook.

I use an iPAQ for this purpose ;-)

 

[R]

This is great, truly helpful - thanks, Brian! I haven't tried it yet, but I
see what you mean and poked around in the menus you mentioned. I hope to
try it in the next couple days.

Here's a related question. A couple times over the years my OE cache became
corrupted somehow. The solution for me was simple - the underlying *.dbx
data files were fine, and I just needed to hide the Folders.dbx file from
the program and start it up again. OE created a new Folders.dbx & built a
new file structure, and I just needed to drag & drop the folders into my
preferred heirarchy & all was well again. Question - if the OL cache should
become corrupt, is there anything analogous I could do to repair it? That
is, will OL simply recognize & access any *.pst files it finds in its
directory & create corresponding folders in the program when it opens?

Btw, I just got an iPaq, too, & have been thinking about using it the same
way! Glad to hear it'll do it!

 

[PA Bear]

When Folders.dbx is damaged, close OE and then find & delete Folders.dbx in
your identity's store. Consequences of doing so:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/store.htm#deldbx

To avoid the problem:

Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

Disable Background Compacting and frequently perform a manual compact of all
OE folders while "working offline". More at
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/maintain.htm.

Your anti-virus application's email scanning feature can also cause such
corruption. Disable it. It provides no additional protection.
--
HTH - Please Reply to This Thread

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE), AH-VSOP

AumHa Forums
http://forum.aumha.org

What You Should Know About Spyware
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/twc/privacy/spyware.mspx

 

[Brian Tillman]

Here's a related question. A couple times over the years my OE cache
became corrupted somehow. The solution for me was simple - the
underlying *.dbx data files were fine, and I just needed to hide the
Folders.dbx file from the program and start it up again. OE created
a new Folders.dbx & built a new file structure, and I just needed to
drag & drop the folders into my preferred heirarchy & all was well
again. Question - if the OL cache should become corrupt, is there
anything analogous I could do to repair it? That is, will OL simply
recognize & access any *.pst files it finds in its directory & create
corresponding folders in the program when it opens?

Outlook Express expects all files of its message store to be in the same
folder. Not so with Outlook. You can have a PST in any folder you like.
The mail profile (kept in the Registry) is the data scructure that keeps
track of which PSTs are attached at any one time. If your mail profile
becomes corrupt, you create a new one with Control Panel's Mail applet and
just add the PSTs in wherever they reside. You've got to remember where
they are, though, for this to work! My solution is to keep them all in one
folder, with backup copies in another folder on another drive.