Outlook 2003 OST Recovery

T

Techie

Is there any way to access an orphaned Outlook 2003 OST
file without an expensive third-party utility? Perhaps an
OST to PST conversion. The OST file cannot be accessed at
this time -- it is truly orphaned...!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
R

Roady [MVP]

A system restore back to the time before it got orphaned sometimes works as
well.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1
 
B

Brian Tillman

Techie said:
Is there any way to access an orphaned Outlook 2003 OST
file without an expensive third-party utility? Perhaps an
OST to PST conversion. The OST file cannot be accessed at
this time -- it is truly orphaned...!

What I would try is to create a new profile of the same name as that used by
the person when the OST was created, set Outlook to use that profile and
select Work Offline to see if you could then access the OST. Alternatively,
you can continue to use the current profile, disable synchronization, point
Outlook at the old OST, and select Work Offline.

Other than that, I can think of no way that doesn't involve a third-party
tool. "Expensive" is relative only to the value of the items you're trying
to recover. If not recovering them will cost the company thousands, then
spending a few hundreds on a recovery tool doesn't seem expensive to me.
 
C

Chuck Daniels

This raises a good question.... Does anyone know the name of the
profile file? I have an ost that I want to move from one computer to
another (and back again).

Thanks
 
B

Brian Tillman

Chuck Daniels said:
This raises a good question.... Does anyone know the name of the
profile file? I have an ost that I want to move from one computer to
another (and back again).

The profile is not kept in a file, it is in the Registry at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\yourprofilename
Conceivably you could export the key that represents your profile and import
it into the other machine, but you'll still need to redefine any passwords
the accounts may have had.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top