Re: .pst folder help - thanks!

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I am at the Control Panel/Mail/Profiles/Data Files/Settings - do I
just take the old setting and change it to C:\Documents and
settings/My DOcuments\Outlook\Outlook.pst
???

"F. H. Muffman" <f.h.muffman@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eb$Gah8xHHA.988@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ok, when you selected the files you wanted to back up, did you select the
PST file? In my generic steps, were you able to perform any of it, or did
you get lost at some point? If you got lost, at what point did you get
lost? Were you able to get the path to your PST file?

--
f.h.
"Terri" <terri@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23PIZp57xHHA.4184@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yes - I use the software that came with Maxtor - it is called Retrospect.
I select which files I want to back up...

I use Windows XP and Outlook 2003...

Ok, lets start with the Maxtor drive backup, which I had asked a
question about but don't remember seeing an answer.

When you made your backup to that drive, what software did you use to do
the backup?

That leads into the question of backing up your current PST. For
clarification, your Contacts folder is not a seperate entity and doesn't
get backed up seperately. You aren't backing up your Contacts, even if
that's all you care about, you're backing up your PST.

What software are you going to use to make backups? Are you simply
going to drag files to the Maxtor drive? Do you have a backup software
that came with the drive?

Generically speaking, you need to know the path to the PST you are
currently using. So, you right-click on the Personal Folders, select
Properties, click Advanced and copy that file name into Start - Run,
delete the file name (whatever.pst) and hit Ok. That'll open an
Explorer window to that directory. Then, you exit out of Outlook. Hit
Control-Shift-Escape and pull up the Processes tab and make sure
outlook.exe is not currently running. If it is, End Task it (it's
likely to be open if there's an add-in keeping it open, or ActiveSync).

Once that's done, copy the PST file to the directory you want it to
permanently reside in.

Then, go to Control Panel - Mail and configure your profile to use the
newly relocated PST. I couldn't give you steps to do that without
knowing what OS and version of Outlook that you're running.

Fire up Outlook and then try to rename the PST file that is in the
*original* location. If you're able to successfully rename it, then
you're using the newly relocated one and can get rid of the original
one.

Now, in order to back up that PST, Outlook can *NOT* be running. So
you'd need to verify it is not running before doing whatever backup you
want to do.

I am primarily interested in backing up My Contacts to a folder in My
Documents. As I explained previously, I had to do a complete restore
and somehow lost contacts that were on my external Maxtor drive and I
dont want that to happen again. I can't open from "within" Outlook on
the external drive (or if I can, I don't know how to do that), so I
don't want another bad episode of losing information again...

So I will settle for backing up the contacts to my docs!

Ummm.. Maybe?

Let's back up.

What *exactly* do you want to do?
Do you want to back up *all* PSTs?
Do you want to back up a *certain* PST(s)?

Now I seem to understand - so if I want to makebackups in My
Docume4nts, I have to move the entire folder to there - correct??

The only way to open a PST file is from *within* Outlook. File -
Open - Outlook Data File.

As for where your PST files are, that might be where they are. Do
you have the PST you want to move open in Outlook already?

I see a Backup file (Office Data File) and when I go to it, it says
"You are attemping to open a file of type (Office Data File (.pst).
These files are used by the operating system and by various
programs. Editing or modifying them could damage your system. If
you still want toopen the file, click Open With, otherwise click
cancel.

So - are my pst files in there? I cannot see them - should I put
the entire backup in My Documents:? If I cannot open them, then
what is the point because I cannot locate any contacts I have
lost!

WHile the location is known, you need to enable viewing hidden
files/folders to actually see the .pst file.

| How do I put a .pst folder in My Documents for constant up to
date
| copying? Mine seems to be in a folder called Office Data File
which I
| cannot open but do not see any pst file...can someone kindly
help me
| out here?






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Relevant Pages

  • Re: outlook files
    ... >>*.pst file. ... >>Outlook 2003 Add-in: Personal Folders Backup ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Backup solutions for PST Files
    ... backup with the default Windows 2003 backup software. ... If we forget to shutdown our Outlook on our workstations to unblock the PST ...
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  • Re: PST file is too big for online backup
    ... There are numerous backup apps that can backup over the net ... BTW you cannot incrementally backup a pst since every time outlook is opened ... If you use an online storage vendor you still have to upload all ...
    (microsoft.public.outlook)
  • Re: .pst folder help - thanks!
    ... Ok, lets start with the Maxtor drive backup, which I had asked a question about but don't remember seeing an answer. ... your Contacts folder is not a seperate entity and doesn't get backed up seperately. ... You aren't backing up your Contacts, even if that's all you care about, you're backing up your PST. ... I couldn't give you steps to do that without knowing what OS and version of Outlook that you're running. ...
    (microsoft.public.outlook)
  • Re: Outlook 2000 in Office XP
    ... I had saved my data with the backup ... Now when I open Outlook, ... > and is the only folder that I can get my e-mail to work in. ... Is the PST you used for backup appearing in your Folder List? ...
    (microsoft.public.outlook)