Duplicate Personal Folders in Outlook 2003

Well, I just realized that after importing my old Outlook .pst that I have three -- count 'em, three! -- personal folders containing my inbox, sent mail, etc.

The top personal folder contains everything including today's mail. The second personal folder only contains mail up to the date I imported it from my old machine. And the third personal folder on the bottom contains the same as the first -- it appears to be an exact replica.

I also apparently have 3 sets of contacts called Contacts, Contacts in Personal Folders, and another Contacts in Personal folders. I'm not sure which one is used when I open my address book and send mail.

Can I delete the second personal folder without having anything in either the first or third personal folder disappear? And then, should I try deleting the third personal folder, even though it appears to be a continuously updating replica of the first, top-most personal folder?

And can I delete two of the three contacts -- although which one I'm not sure?

Thanks.

 

Okay, I think I know what happened but I could still use your advice on one issue.

What happened was, I first tried to copy over my old .pst (called "dkline.pst" ) and open my new Outlook installation with it, but I discovered that it didn't have my address book. So I then went back to the regular 256K Outlook.pst and did an export/import from my old dkline.pst to my new Outlook.pst.

So now I have one Personal Folder for my old dkline.pst and two, duplicate Personal Folders for my working Outlook.pst.

Deleting the non-current Personal Folder for my old dkline.pst should be no problem. But take a look at the brief description of how to remove a duplicate of a good, working Personal Folder.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA011170471033.aspx?pid=CL100626971033

I don't quite understand what happens to the duplicate Personal Folder that it tells you to close. Are you simply delivering email from the duplicate back to the original?

Also, if I do a backup as you suggest before deleting anything and then discover after the delete that things aren't right, how do I use the backup -- do I import it, or rename it from "backup.pst" to "Outlook.pst? "

Thanks.