Do the contacts reside within the .pst file?

If the outlook.pst and archive.pst files are backed up will I be able
to restore all data in case of corruption or loss?

Are there ways to retrieve data from .pst files other than Outlook?

Yes, yes and none that I'm aware of (of course I may be wrong).

Make that yes, yes, and yes (or, at least one way, and not that I can guarantee
it works, and if it works for anything but email).

http://lifehacker.com/340521/import-...ith-pst-import

--
f.h.
Microsoft Outlook MVP