No. You do not have the same problem. As long as you did not export your
data then you will be fine. The file you need is your Personal Folders file
(*.pst) It's where all the mail, calendar, contacts etc are stored.

Take a look at these pages for info on Outlook data backup or transfer:
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
http://www.howto-outlook.com/Howto/backupandrestore.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/as...771141033.aspx


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Thehariboqueen" wrote in message
...
Hi - I have had the same problem. Did you manage to resolve your issue as
I
am struggling. I backed up my complete hard drive and assumed that the
contacts would be there. Problem is that I do not know where to find them
now. I hope you have had some luck.

"Tealfin" wrote:

All I did was open the inport/export wizard in outlook and exported the
contacts to a cd. Thats it. I didnt try to change the format. When I
tried to
import them, that is when I realised that the were in a .txt format. Is
there
any kind of conversion utility or software that i can use to get these
contacts inported back in?

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Exactly how did you "back up" your Contacts? All you needed to do is
make a
copy of your Outlook data file, then open that file in the new
installation.
You would never export Contacts to a different format to back them up.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Tealfin" wrote in message
...
Okay, here is my situation. My computer was very unstable for the
last
few
weeks. Sudden crashes loss of work etc. As a result I had to
reinstall
my
Windows XP. Before doing this I was able to back up a lot of my
information.
I backed up all of my contact information on a disk. I now have
office
2007
installed and cannot import my contact information. When I go to do
an
import, the import wizard tells me my files are not compatible. I
then
went
to where I saved my information and noticed that the contacts were
saved
as a
.txt file. I am not sure that I had an option to save them any other
way.
My question is, how do I go about converting this file into a
recognizable
file that Outlook will read. I have tried to open this file in Excel
but
there are questions regarding how to open this file that I don't
understand.
I believe when I saved the file, I saved them with a semicolon or: to
separate the values. Each time I try to delineate this option when
opening
the file in Excel it doesn't seem to open correctly. Is there any
way to
convert this file so I can import it into my Outlook contacts. I
have
been
racking my brains and trying the numerous things but none seem to
work.
Please help, I have hundreds of contacts that have taken years to
compile
and
I can't upload them.