Import is for converting non-Outlook data into a format that Outlook can understand, such as a .csv or .txt files. You need to install your Outlook Address Book service to get the Contacts to show in your Outlook Address Book.

Control Panel-Mail Icon-Accounts-Directories-Add. Add the OAB service, okay out, close and restart Outlook.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact.


After furious head scratching, patrick asked:

| Dear Russ,
|
| Thanks for the advice. I retrieved my emails! So, what is import
| for? Also, I neglected to copy my address book but I have a contact
| list. Any way to reconstruct an address book from a contact list?
|
| Patrick
|
|
| Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote:
|| First never create a PST file by exporting. There is a good chance
|| you will corrupt that file. Just copy the file using Windows
|| Explorer.
|| Second, never copy Outlook files into the default directory. There
|| is a good chance you will overwrite other files and corrupt any
|| existing profile. Third, never import PST files. Just copy the files
|| to some other location on your hard drive. Remove their read only
|| attribute. Then open the files in Outlook: File Open Outlook
|| Data File.
||
|| --
|| Russ Valentine
|| [MVP-Outlook]
|| "patrick" wrote in message
|| ups.com...
||| Dear Russ,
|||
||| I have the following files. I will list them and give their
||| history. All of them are pst files:
|||
||| archive; archive1, outlook, Outlookold, Personal Folders(1),
||| Personal Folders(2), pwe, pwemail.
|||
||| All of these were copied to a cd from my harddrive after the bad
||| install of Win2k. I copied them all from the cd to Windows\local
||| settings\Microsoft\outlook etc.in my laptop. It is there where they
||| now reside. The origin of archive ones are obvious. The Personal
||| Folders were created when I loaded them to a disc so I could import
||| them into my desktop at work. pwe and pwemail were copied from my
||| network email files at work when I began to use my laptop at work.
||| The one labeled outlook is the one that outlook makes when it
||| closes and that is the one that contains the data for the last 30
||| days. I have unchecked the read only box from all of them and have
||| never been able to view any of them using the open command. I have
||| mail records dating from September 20, 2006 to '04 and these were
||| contained in the archive files and loaded well into the outlook
||| program.
|||
||| Is this enough info? I followed the link provided by Millie and ran
||| the scan program and it says that the folder (outlook.pst) is fine.
|||
||| What next?
|||
||| Patrick
|||
|||
||| Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote:
|||| Importing is never the correct way to transfer Outlook data.
|||| You need to state clearly how you created and transferred these PST
|||| files.
|||| You need to provide more information. When you say you tried to
|||| open these
|||| PST files, "nothing" is not an accurate description of what
|||| happened. State
|||| what you tried and what happened.
|||| --
|||| Russ Valentine
|||| [MVP-Outlook]
|||| "patrick" wrote in message
|||| ups.com...
||||| A windows 2000 install failed and I got an NTDLR message. I
||||| couldn't get in so I copied the data files onto a CD. I
||||| reinstalled windows 98 and then imported the saved *.pst file
||||| into a newly installed outlook 2000. Everything came over except
||||| the last 3 months. Then I realized that I had imported an
||||| archive file. When I tried to import other *.pst files, none
||||| would come over except those labeled archive.pst. I have tried
||||| everyting, like using the open command--nothing; I checked each
||||| of the files and made sure the the read only box was unchecked.
||||| I am flummoxed because when I go to import, the following
||||| happens, here is the process: import\import from another program
||||| or file\personal folder file\address to the *.pst file\select the
||||| folder to import from--now here is the interesting point--the
||||| address that appears in the the space is always Personal Folders
||||| in the outlook open window, not the address I gave. When I click
||||| finish, I get the message that tells me that I cannot import from
||||| the same file that the file is destined for...Any ideas?
|||||
||||| Patrick