Where’s my Outlook data on old drive? (WinXPsp2; O

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Using Outlook for several months, then removed the only hard drive in the machine (C:) to install new, faster drive. Reinstalled Windows on the new drive, and made the original drive a secondary (now E:) without otherwise touching the file structure on it. The old drive comes up fine with file structure intact — EXCEPT I can’t find the .pst file or any other Outlook data file (.ost,.pab, etc). I searched the entire drive. Anybody know where can I find this? Is the Outlook data stored under a different file name? Outlook help says ‘Some files are created only when you customize Outlook features.” I thought I did plenty of customization! (I do have “Show hidden files and folder option” checked.)

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Does the old drive still have your profile in the c:Documents and Settings folder, or did it somehow get migrated when you re-installed Windows? (That is where Outlook always puts its data files unless instructed otherwise.)

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All profiles intact, from what I can tell. I didn’t touch the file structure on the old drive. (I physically removed the drive from the box for the OS reinstall on the new drive, then hooked it up again as a secondary after Windows and Office were installed on the new drive.)

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Make sure that you show hidden files and folders. The default location for your .pst is in a subfolder of a hidden folder. On my PC, it is in

C:Documents and SettingsLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook

where is my Windows username. Both Local Settings and Application Data are hidden folders.

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Yep, hidden files and folders are showing.

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If hidden files and folders are displayed, yet you cannot find a .pst file, you have a problem.

Have you found a folder C:Documents and SettingsLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook (with your username instead of )? If yes, what does it contain?

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If you did a wildcard search (*.pst) and nothing came up, there would be a problem. Did you uninstall or transfer the Outlook program from the old drive to the new drive? If uninstalled, it may have removed any associated files. If you did a program move or copy, it should have moved the .pst, etc. files over to your new drive, but may not have loaded them when you opened Outlook.

If you do a File | Open Outlook Data File, does anything come up in the dialog window? Do you have anything named “archive” in Outlook’s file list? If so, the archive may be your old Outlook data files.

Brent

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> If you did a wildcard search (*.pst) and nothing came up

Did it; nada.

> Did you uninstall or transfer the Outlook program from the old drive to the new drive?

No. Fresh install from the CD on the new drive while old drive was physically removed.

> If you did a program move or copy

No.

If you do a File | Open Outlook Data File, does anything come up in the dialog window?

Nothing comes up.

Do you have anything named “archive” in Outlook’s file list?

Nothing. A puzzlement. I even looked on the server but found only an old old PST file from months ago, not the recent one.

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>Reinstalled Windows on the new drive, and made the original drive a secondary (now E:) without otherwise touching the file structure on it. The old drive comes up fine with file structure intact — EXCEPT I can’t find the .pst file or any other Outlook data file (.ost,.pab, etc). I searched the entire drive.

Fom what you have said, the default location for your PST file became E:Documents and SettingsLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook. As the file is not there, it would seem that one of two things apply. Either the permissions on the new installation have not enabled you to “see” the old files. (This has happened to me – even with Administrative permissions. You may need to take ownereship of the folders,) Or you kept your PST file in a non-default location.

HTH

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Seems you have exhausted all of the logical and less arduous alternatives. More arduous option: remove the new hard drive, boot the old one, and find the file using the Mail control panel (which would be drawing its data from the old registry).

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Auggie,

This statement brought up some questions: “Nothing. A puzzlement. I even looked on the server but found only an old old PST file from months ago, not the recent one. ”

Did you backup Outlook? If so, how (Outlook’s backup feature, Outlook’s archive feature, or another backup program)? If you did a fresh install on the new drive, but still have the original install on the slave drive, could their be conflicts with file access and/or Microsoft licensing restrictions that would prevent you from accessing the old file? (I don’t know, just throwing out a thought. I know MS does hobble some of it’s programs from being loaded onto more than one PC without a new CD key from MS.)

Have you tried opening up the original install of Outlook on your E:/ drive? If you can do that, it may open with the PST file attached to it. Then you could either export the entire file to a new PST and import it into your new install. Or you could copy and paste everything over.

Brent

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(Edited by HansV to make URL clickable – see Help 19)

One last thing. Here’s an article, generally, about Outlook. It covers pretty much everything you mentioned. Some little hints about finding hidden PST files. Thought it was worth passing on:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/Articl…4017/24017.html%5B/url%5D

Brent

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Thanks to all for your help and suggestions. I’ll mount the old drive as the solo one and see what happens. I’ll also study the article Brent suggests. A mystery so far.

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