Reinstalling Win2000 - How do I save Outlook email?

[Muse]

I'm working on my brother's Gateway and things look pretty screwed up. He used to run ME and I installed Win2000 in a multiboot scenario, but it looks like both OSs are hosed and I'm thinking now of having him buy a 2nd HD, which I will make the boot drive and just install Win2000 on it and restore some apps and data from the original HD. Where does Outlook 2000 keep it's email data? Is this in the outlook.pst file? Is that all I have to restore to save his email? Thanks.

 

[ojai00]

Yea, just back up all the folders by exporting the folders to *.pst files. You can back up the archives but it might not have the latest information. After that, make sure you put those *.pst files on a separate hard drive or on a CD and just import them back when you're done with the reinstall. Hope this helps.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: ojai00
Yea, just back up all the folders by exporting the folders to *.pst files. You can back up the archives but it might not have the latest information. After that, make sure you put those *.pst files on a separate hard drive or on a CD and just import them back when you're done with the reinstall. Hope this helps.

I made a backup of the Inbox using the Outlook interface and used the default name, backup.pst. Also manually copied the outlook.pst file, so I'll save both. Thanks.

 

[ojai00]

well i don't know what backup.pst backs up. i think it backs up everything but i'm not really sure. you might want to back up each folder manually just to have something to fall back on. there was one time i just backed up the entire tree from the top and check "include subdirectories" and the file came out to like 27MB but there was nothing in it. just to be on the safe side...that's why i'm suggesting it. if it works, then you won't have to do it in the future.

 

[Zucarita9000]

.pst will backup your emails and your address book. It WONT save your inbox rules or your email accounts details. If you happen to have rules set up, go to the rules panel and go to "options" and then "export...", they'll be saved in a .rwz file.

 

[MMuse]

Well, things have gone pretty well except for one thing. When I set him up a year ago I gave him Outlook for his email program. I don't have the program with me this time so I set him up with Outlook Express in his Windows 2000 SP3, but I haven't been able to figure out how to import exported messages from Outlook back into Outlook Express. Outlook Express gives you the option of importing email messages from any of the following _email_programs_:

Eudora Pro or Light (through v3.0)
Microsoft Exchange
Microsoft Internet Mail (32-bit Version)
Microsoft Internet Mail for Windows 3.1
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook Express 4
Microsoft Outlook Express 5
Microsoft Windows Messaging
Netscape Communicator
Netscape Mail (v2 or v3)

His Outlook 2000 lets you export the Inbox in any of several formats:

Comma separated values .txt file (either DOS or Windows)
Tab delimited .txt file (either DOS or Windows)
Excel
Microsoft FoxPro
Access

Is there a way to get the exported data imported into his Outlook Express?

Edit: I can think of one way, not too elegant - Swap his new boot drive for his old and open Outlook and forward all his messages (there are around 50) to himself. Shut down, swap the old drive for the new, open OE and Send/Receive messages. If all else fails, I'll do that. He's not terribly concerned about it probably, but I want to do the best job I can.

 

[TheWart]

There is also a "cheesier" route if your brother doesn't have a ton of email and if he doesn't need to save a whole address book. Just forward all the mail to his account/your account/a third hotmail account and when his machine is back up and running you can check it on outlook or resend it if it is on yours or a hotmail one. I have done this when all I need are the messages.

 

[MMuse]

Originally posted by: TheWart
There is also a "cheesier" route if your brother doesn't have a ton of email and if he doesn't need to save a whole address book. Just forward all the mail to his account/your account/a third hotmail account and when his machine is back up and running you can check it on outlook or resend it if it is on yours or a hotmail one. I have done this when all I need are the messages.

Right, and you may note that my "Edit" on the post previous to yours has that basic idea. My brother mentioned to me last night that he'd really like to preserve his address book, so I'm going to look into that today. He was multibooting ME and Win2k, but usd Win2k most of the time. The Win2k Outlook didn't have his address book for some reason, and he figures it IS in ME, which I will try to go back into. The box was infected with W32.ElKern.4926 and W32.Klez.H@mm viruses and it was impossible to insall Norton AV. After installing the new HD (with the infected old one unattached!), I installed NAV and ran Liveupdate before installing the original infected HD as a slave. I then ran NAV and disinfected the drive. Just how usable that ME partition will be in my attempt to retrieve his address book, I don't know. I did notice some facility in Outlook to export the address book, so I'm optimistic. Even if I can't import it directly into OE, at least I can do a copy/paste for the individual entries, not a big deal. Thanks for the help.