Disaster Recovery of Outlook configuration?

[Paul Halver]

I lost my hard drive at home and have since a new one. I had the hard drive backed up on an external disk so I have all my information, but is there easy instructions somewhere on how to recreate the Outlook configuration and all my folders and email directly from the raw data files?

thanks!

paul.

[ringfinger]

Not that I know of... there may be. I would recommend moving your .pst file to the new drive first and see where that gets you. You may have to manually move most everything.

[Paul Halver]

How would I figure out all the files to move manually then that are associated with Outlook?

[TheFlash428]

The default location for PST files is "C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook" (this is a hidden folder). If you are not connected to an exchange server, chances are your mail saved here, assuming you are using Windows 2K/XP. the default file is "Outlook.pst". This PST file can be imported into the profile on your new hard drive using the "Import/Export" option in Outlook, or added as a separate data file.

You could also do a "*.pst" search on your old drives files to see if the PST file was saved to an alternate location.

As far as completely loading the previous configuration, I personally don't know of anyway to get that to work. I'm pretty sure you will at least have to set up the profile manually, but most of the information (messages/calendar/contacts/etc) should be saved in the PST file.

Edited September 27, 2005 by TheFlash428

[pawan]

Just find the file "C:\Documents and Settings\All user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst (in your HDD backup) and replace the file in the same folder of your new HDD.

This is the easiest method, dosn't required a seprate profile or any import/export. Just be sure outlook is not opened when you do this.

Pawan