My computer was acting 'weird' -- unstable. And I was working to "fix" it -- cleaning disk, getting rid of extra software, etc. I also have an external hard drive.



I was in Outlook and all of a sudden my Outlook got stuck and would not "unstick". I closed the computer, reopened and my pst files showed that they were "gone".



So I went online and did a lot of research. I couldn't find the files, even though I'd unhidden everything UNTIL I did a search for them and they showed up as being there.



But I couldn't get them to work with Outlook.



So I called HP, where I have a service contract. We cleaned out the computer. Uninstalled MS office then reinstalled It. Unistalled ie 9.0, then reinstalled it. Removed Google Chrome but added Advant browser as i.e 9.0 doesn't allow me to delete or add newsletters from my newsletter program.



The unstableness of my computer seems to have gone away from the work we did.





But still the PST problem existed. I would open Outlook, it wanted 'x' files, from my external hard drive, and couldn't find them.



Finally after searching for an answer I was able to create a new database in Outlook so that at least I can open it, use it and disable the files that it's trying to get that "aren't working'. Those files are on my external hard drive.



I was able to unengage all files except one that it insisted it was using. That database, I am unable to to get into the emails BUT the system allowed me to send/receive mail using the files from it and I can send emails pretty easily since the old email addresses show up in the To/From area (they do not show up in the contact file) Also the sytem opens the reminders. Just NO Contact List and no access to emails.





Someone, at the MS Forum told me to do a check disk. I did. My hard drive is AOK. My external hard drive, it found some files and saved them to a folder called FOUND.



Still no easy access to the PST files.. in fact, now they're gone. They seem to be in the FOUND folder as CHD files.



I see their size and they are my PST files, 2gb and 3gb each -- but I can't seem to open them.



Thoughts? Advise?



The kicker. When I brought all those old files to my new computer and external hard drive. I thought that I was accessing the files from my external hard drive (and it was) BUT I thought it was backing up the files on my new computer.



It didn't do what I thought it was doing.



So I'd really like to try to save those CHD files and turn them back into PST files.



Thanks for reading this book of what's been going on.



Maria





Any thoughts on how to open them?