How to restore MS Office Outlook 2007 folders back in Outlook

Hi Try*3,

Hope you enjoyed a fine Christmas with your loved ones.

I am in your Reply

1 Relocate the Outlook.pst file

1.5 I don't see the Outlook.pst, Archive.pst files.

      I see the following; New folder,

      Last.sharing.xml.obi, Extend.dat, Outlook personal folders, Outlook.sharing.xml.obi and    

      Outlook.xml.kfl.

Please advise.

Happy New Year.

Earleb

Earle,

I posted them in sequence.  They are in that sequence in this thread but it seems that the notification emails crossed over each other on the way to you.

This is the intended sequence

[unnumbered introduction starting with "Before starting, I need to point out one thing." - now amended with an initial heading 0  Introduction to make it clearer]

1  Relocate the Outlook.pst file

2  Move the backed up pst files

3  Review the 53 backed up pst files

4  Review each of the remaining backed up pst files

5  Further queries

Hi Try*3

I received six (6) messages. Please advise the correct order.

Are the following correct?

Reply

5 Further queries

1.       Relocate the Outlook .pst file

2.       Move the backed up .pst files

3.       Review the 53 backed up .pst files

4.       Review each of the remaining backed up .pst files

5.       Before starting. I need to point out one thing.

Thanks Try*3

5  Further queries

If you have any queries about the procedure then please tell me the para that the query relates to in order to help me understand the problem.  Please use the term folder for the things you see in Windows explorer and Outlook folder for the similar-looking things you see within your Outlook pst files themselves.

Doing this much work within Windows explorer & within Outlook is bound to raise unrelated questions about using these applications.  That’s fine but just leave them to the end when the main job is done so that my explanations do not confuse you during this rather awkward task. 

You should consider what to do about that additional user name earleb on your PC as you might well have other files within that area that you don’t want to lose.  You can also ask me about that afterwards as I do not expect it to create any difficulties during the current task.

4  Review each of the remaining backed up pst files

4.1  You will be doing the rest of the work in Outlook itself.

4.2  Look at the Folders list in Outlook.  Create a new Outlook folder with a stupid name so that you will be able to use it as a marker.  You’ll be looking at a lot of similar files and it will be easy to get confused between them - they will probably all have the entries Outlook folders, Calendar, Inbox & so on.  So, before doing anything else, right-click on this Outlook folders and click on New folder… then call it AAAAAAA so it stands out well at the top of the list.

4.3  If you are likely to want to put any of the items from those backed up pst files straight into your Archive.pst then open it now.  In Outlook, click on the File menu then Open then Outlook data file… then browse to & select Archive.pst.  Create a stupid entry called BBBBB in it as well so you also have a good marker for it.

4.4  Now to the real task.  In Outlook, click on the File menu then Open then Outlook data file… then browse to C:\Users\Earle\Desktop\TempBackedUpPST & select the first of the backed up pst files you want to check over.  You’ll see it appear in your Folders list.  Select one of its Outlook folders [Calendar, say] and see what is in there.  You might find it difficult to tell what’s there from its default view so click on the View menu then Current view then All appointments [that is normally in a useful simple list arrangement by default].  Look down the list of entries.  You can sort the view by clicking on column headers so you can review them by date, by name & so on.  When you find an entry that you want to keep, select its icon on the left-hand end of it, press down the ctrl key to make it a copying operation then drag it into the relevant Outlook folder within your proper Outlook.pst [AAAAA] or Archive.pst [BBBBB], then release the mouse button. 

4.5  Do this for every Outlook folder in the selected backed up pst file.  When you do Contacts, the most useful View is probably Phone list.  If you do not use the Journal feature then don’t even look at that Outlook folder.  If you don’t have any Search folders [search definitions] saved then don’t look in that one.  There is probably nothing useful in Deleted items or Junk email.  If you find anything useful within RSS feeds then copy it across but make a note to check the master list in Internet Explorer afterwards.

4.6  When you have done it for every folder you can close that backed up pst file.  Select its highest level folder [probably also called Outlook folders - so check there’s no AAAAA or BBBBB below it] & select Close “its name”.

4.7  Tick that backed up pst file off on your checklist.  Then move that file to the Done folder you made earlier to help guard against accidentally reviewing the same file twice.

4.8  This is the safe point at which to take a break.  I’ve done this task myself before when I’ve got new PC and stopping at any other point lead to errors & great confusion.

4.9  Return to para 4.4 to work through the next backed up pst file.

4.10  When you have finished them all and closed the last one, you can delete AAAAA & BBBBB.  It would also be normal to close Archive.pst if you had that open.  You will probably want to keep the files in C:\Users\Earle\Desktop\TempBackedUpPST for a while until you are confident nothing has been lost. [after that you should be able to have confidence that your normal backup routines are capturing Outlook.pst & Archive.pst so you’ll never get in this mess again]