Outlook 2003: Personal file folder issue

Hi, just signed up... looking for some help with something. I work for a small company that does not have an IT department, and the person who is supposted to do the IT stuff knows less than I do about computers which is just enough to cause some damage =)...

Anyway, I had a very old laptop that was very reliable but would never be able to handle XP, ACT! 6, or Office 2003 so the company bought me a new Dell Inspiron 6000 (very nice I must say). However, when our "IT" person, set up my computer they moved my personal Outlook folders to the network drive from my old laptop, and when they installed Outlook 2003 they just linked them to my Outlook 2003 instead of moving them too my hard drive locally.

When I go to the "Control Panel ", and then to the "Folder Options ", and switch it so that I can see invisible folders, and hunt down the folder where my personal folders should be... there isn't an "Outlook" folder in the "Microsoft" folder.

So, my question is, can I create a folder, name it "Outlook" and copy my personal folder file from the server to that new folder without any problems or is there going to be some command path problems or something like that? I have a lot of saved emails that I want to retain and don't want to lose anything, so any and all help will be appreciated.

I need to have that file local on my hard drive because I travel for my company, that is why I need to move it.

tjg

 

Ok, brainstorming during the last few hours since I posted this...

If I create a new Data File it should create all the appropriate paths and folders... right? I can call it "New" and once the folder is created, then copy my personal data file (the .pst file) over from the server and place it on the hard drive of my laptop... then go in and delete the "New" data file (.pst) since it does not have anything saved in it.

Kind of sloppy, but if someone else has a better idea, I would like to hear...

 

Actually that didn't work... I kept getting an error saying that I could not import to the same folder.

So I worked with it some more and found the solution myself.

You can copy the "Outlook" folder, and the .pst file directly onto the hard drive.

However if you do that, you will need to do this...

File -> Data File Management -> Add

From there you will have to track down where the .pst file is (file view settings will need to be set to "Show Hidden folders and files ") once you have found the .pst file, select it, then click add. (Personal note, you may want to change the name of the copied one to make identifing it easier)

Then you will have the previous one, and the copied one... the next step is to change the new one to your default data file.

Tools -> Emails Accounts -> View or Change Email Accounts -> Deliver new e-mail to the following location:

And just select the new data file, restart Outlook, and you are done.

 

try importing?

Hi tjg,

Have u tried to import the .pst file from the network drive to your new computer? I THINK this gives you all your emails, contacts and things u put in the calendar.

 

Yes I tried that, but I kept getting an error that said, "can't import to the same folder "

I have all my emails, contacts, and the items in my calendar, by copying the .pst file and placing it on my laptops harddrive. (see my other post)