In order to transfer Outlook to new PC (both Office 2003; WinXP Pro) I made
the mistake of trying to import Outlook data into the new machine. My mail
is tied to an Exchange server and I use a local cache. I also have a Hotmail
account in Outlook and a Personal Folder for an archive. All are messed up
at this point with duplicates and missing data (the result of the initial
import I suspect). I've tried to fix by copying pst and ost files without
success. Seems like the easiest thing at this point would be to start over.
Please advise.

You cannot copy your .ost file - that is tied to your profile on the machine you are currently using. You will need to hook up to Exchange again and allow it to create a new .ost file.

As for the .pst file, never export it. Copy it and open it.

Now that you have a thoroughly corrupt profile, time for the scorched earth method - create a new mail profile, add your Exchange account and all of the other accounts. Let EXchange sync up for a while. Then go back and open your .pst file and your hotmail.pst file.


--�
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, JDV asked:

| In order to transfer Outlook to new PC (both Office 2003; WinXP Pro)
| I made the mistake of trying to import Outlook data into the new
| machine. My mail is tied to an Exchange server and I use a local
| cache. I also have a Hotmail account in Outlook and a Personal
| Folder for an archive. All are messed up at this point with
| duplicates and missing data (the result of the initial import I
| suspect). I've tried to fix by copying pst and ost files without
| success. Seems like the easiest thing at this point would be to
| start over. Please advise.

Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook] What@ever wrote:

Now that you have a thoroughly corrupt profile, time for the scorched
earth method - create a new mail profile, add your Exchange account
and all of the other accounts. Let EXchange sync up for a while.
Then go back and open your .pst file and your hotmail.pst file.

The Hotmail PST should need to be opened, either. Creating a new Hotmail
account will create a new Hotmail PST. Since the Hotmail server contains
all the messages anyway, it will recreate the contents.
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

Brian Tillman wrote:

The Hotmail PST should need to be opened, either.

Shouldn't.
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

I more or less sorted things out with a lot of manual edits. Only problem is
that when Outlook synchronized with Hotmail, most of the messages only
contained times for received field but not dates. This is on the Hotmail
site; Outlook is OK. But that is probably another forum.

"JDV" wrote:

In order to transfer Outlook to new PC (both Office 2003; WinXP Pro) I made
the mistake of trying to import Outlook data into the new machine. My mail
is tied to an Exchange server and I use a local cache. I also have a Hotmail
account in Outlook and a Personal Folder for an archive. All are messed up
at this point with duplicates and missing data (the result of the initial
import I suspect). I've tried to fix by copying pst and ost files without
success. Seems like the easiest thing at this point would be to start over.
Please advise.