Outlook 2003 & Vista - error, help?

[TrishAtCP]

I've installed Outlook 2003 on Vista Home Premium and migrated my pst file to
my new computer. When I try to load Outlook, I get the following message:

"Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook
window. The set of folders could not be opened. The server is not
available. Contact your administrator if this condition persists."

This is the path I used for the pst file:

C:\Users\myname\AppData\Microsoft\Outlook

I am desperate to get this fixed, I've got 5 yrs of accumulated data in
Outlook for my business - I'm in panic mode - please help - someone, anyone!

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

how did you migrate the pst? is the read-only flag set?



** Please include your Outlook version, Account type, and Windows Version
when requesting assistance **

 

[TrishAtCP]

I copied the the pst files (outlook & archive) from my old computer to my
external hard drive then from the external to the new computer. "flag set" -
haven't a clue what that is Diane?

 

[DL]

In Explorer, properties of the pst - Read only ticked?

Was outlook set up and functioning prior to you migrating?
If so and you overwrote the existing pst's, then thats a good way to corrupt
both them and the profile

Move any pst's in the default location to a temp folder.
Re copy your pst's from external drive to the default location (Note pst's
do not *have to be* in the default location.
In the Control Panel, Mail Applet, create a new Profile, add these data
files set one as the default store, configure accounts & test.

 

[TrishAtCP]

Thanks for the leads Diane.

Yes, the outlook.pst file was read only, I unchecked the read only box and
saved it. No difference. The archive.pst file wasn't read only.

As for the outlook program itself, it was a brand new installation on the
new computer with vista. Once I installed it I went to

C:\Users\Trish\AppData\Microsoft\Outlook

to see what was in there. There was no outlook.pst file. Then I copied my
files from the external into that folder.

I've now tried renaming my pst files to outlook1.pst and archive1.pst in
that same folder (which I think is the default folder), uninstalling outlook
2003, then reinstalling it.

Same message comes up:

"Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook
window. The set of folders could not be opened. The server is not
available. Contact your administrator if this condition persists."

In the interim, I tried installing a borrowed copy (for testing purposes
only) of Outlook 2007. Not having any luck there either so I uninstalled it.

Any other ideas? I very much appreciate your help, feeling very lost and
vulnerable with the prospect of losing all my tasks, contacts, notes and
email history.

 

[TrishAtCP]

Here's what I've now tried:

I renamed the folder C:\Users\Trish\AppData\Microsoft\Outlook
to Outlook1 and created a new Outlook folder in Microsoft.

I uninstalled Outlook 2003 and then reinstalled it. I thought that if you
were on point about my having corrupted the pst file, this action would
recreate it without my data file interfering.

Some outcome. In fact, when I go to the
C:\Users\Trish\AppData\Microsoft\Outlook
folder after the reinstallation, there's nothing in there.
--
~Trish

Thanks for the leads Diane.

Yes, the outlook.pst file was read only, I unchecked the read only box and
saved it. No difference. The archive.pst file wasn't read only.

As for the outlook program itself, it was a brand new installation on the
new computer with vista. Once I installed it I went to

C:\Users\Trish\AppData\Microsoft\Outlook

to see what was in there. There was no outlook.pst file. Then I copied my
files from the external into that folder.

I've now tried renaming my pst files to outlook1.pst and archive1.pst in
that same folder (which I think is the default folder), uninstalling outlook
2003, then reinstalling it.

Same message comes up:

"Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook
window. The set of folders could not be opened. The server is not
available. Contact your administrator if this condition persists."

In the interim, I tried installing a borrowed copy (for testing purposes
only) of Outlook 2007. Not having any luck there either so I uninstalled it.

Any other ideas? I very much appreciate your help, feeling very lost and
vulnerable with the prospect of losing all my tasks, contacts, notes and
email history.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Reinstallation doesn't fix configuration issues. Renaming the Outlook folder
and recreating it corrupted your mail profile. You'll need to recreate it
now.
See http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm

 

[TrishAtCP]

Robert, you are brilliant! Following the instructions in the document you
send me a link to enabled me to open Outlook.

Now, can you tell me how I can use the pst file from my old computer instead
of the empty pst file that outlook has just created? I've done imports in
the past that have not imported everything - missed signature files, rules,
etc.

Do you have any idea of I can just trade the current empty outlook.pst file
for my outlook.pst file that's 1.5GB?

 

[Brian Tillman]

As for the outlook program itself, it was a brand new installation on
the new computer with vista. Once I installed it I went to

C:\Users\Trish\AppData\Microsoft\Outlook

That would tell you nothing and, in fact, nothing will be there. The folder
you should examine is
C:\Users\Trish\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

to see what was in there. There was no outlook.pst file. Then I
copied my files from the external into that folder.

You would have had to create that folder in order copy anything there.
After copy the PST to some folder OTHER THAN the one I named, Open the Mail
applet in Control Panel, click the Data Files tab, and add the PST you
placed on disk. Set it to be your delivery location. Remove the PST that
the Outlook installation created for you. Start Outlook and you'll be good
to go.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

That's also in the instructions in the document.
In short; File-> Open-> Outlook Data File...
Never overwrite or import pst-files unless you like to start over again ;-)

Signatures are not kept in the pst-file.
See http://www.msoutlook.info/question/84