Outlook Recovery

[Don Wells]

    I have replaced my motherboard and all drives, necessitating a re-installation of Windows XP, and Office 2003. In doing this I have lost all of my contacts, tasks, and appointments.
    I have access to the drive containing the original Outlook installation, but seek guidance on where to find the databases containing my missing data as well as the appropriate method of recovering it.
    Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

[HansV]

Your contacts, tasks and appointments are stored along with your e-mail messages in your .pst file. The name of the .pst file is that of your Outlook profile; the default proposed when you first configure Outlook is Outlook.pst. The default location for .pst files is

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

You'll have to show hidden files and folders in order to see this folder.
You can use one of the following methods to retrieve the data:

1. Copy the .pst file from the original hard disk to the corresponding location on your new hard disk. Open the Mail control panel, click Data Files... and make sure that Outlook uses the copied data file as default.

or

2. Copy the .pst file from the original hard disk to your hard disk. Start Outlook and use File | Open | Outlook Data File... to open the .pst file. You can then drag items from the old file to your current mailbox.

See Reconnect your old Outlook data file.

Warning: make sure that the copied .pst file is not read-only - right-click it in Windows Explorer and select Properties from the popup menu. The Read-Only check box should be clear.