how to backup outlook

[bigdan]

i'm using an online backup service called sugarsync. this backs up certain folders ive selected regularly, or at least its supposed to (i havent verified yet).

i want to backup my outlook emails and contacts. i dont know how to do that, or if thats even possible automatically. is all the data stored in a certain directory? the alternative ive figured out and what ive been doing is to export an outlook PST file regularly, manually, and then have sugarsync back it up. question is, does that do just my emails, or my contacts as well? or maybe not even all emails? ive tried opening one of these pst files on another computer but it gives an error saying "Properties for this information service prior to use" and then "The file Backup.pst is not compatible w/ the version of the Personal Folders information service." Could that be b/c the pst file was made in outlook 2003, and this is outlook 2000?

So to sum up -
Do PST files have just emails, or do they have contacts as well, or neither? [most imp question]
Is my PST file not being read on the other computer b/c of diff versions of Outlook?
Is there another way to backup Outlook regularly, automatically.

Thanks
Dan

ps - i preferred the previous colors of this forum. any chance of going back to that?

 

[KSoD]

You will need to find the .PST Data file. This link should tell you how to find it to back it up.

The .PST does your mail and contacts. I have backed up mine for several months now and even after a reinstall i still have all my old mail and contact information. Newer .PST files will not work with older versions of Outlook. Meaning you cant take a .PST from Outlook 2003 and use it in Outlook 2000. Things changed in those 3 short years.

To back up reguarly is simple. Just close Outlook and copy the .PST file. Automatically? No. Unless you create a batch file.

As for the previous skin, very bottom left of the forum there is a drop down menu. That is the skin selector.

 

[bigdan]

thanks mak, that was quite informative.

i just want to clear up something in case of misunderstanding.

according to that article i can click on any of the main folders, or even the subfolders within, and they'll all have pst's. so for example in my inbox if i have a subfolder called career that would have its own pst correct? now these individual folders' pst's, would they also have contacts saved, or only the root directory's pst would have it? or to ask more directly, which folder could i click on and get its pst to get *everything* in outlook backed up?

btw it seems from this that the pst already exists, is that correct? i thought one has to manually generate it.

 

[Lexluethar]

No, a PST holds all contact and email information. So your one PST will hold your contacts and any subfolders you've created in your inbox and any emails / attachements included in those.

So the best way of backing up is either to copy the .PST yourself when backing up or include it within the backup list with the program you are using (or move it to the folder where the files are you backup, like i've moved my PST to 'my documents' since that is the folder i always backup). Remember in doing this you will have to point outlook to the correct locations of the PST.

 

[Osiris]

Hmmmm..........

The .pst files you are speak of, those are manually created. Your inbox, etc creates a file called .ost

A .pst is a Personal Files Folder which you create for archiving/backup purposes.

This is the default location for both

%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook folder\email.ost
%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook folder\email.pst

What I do at work is create a folder called Email Archive at the root of C:

Then point the .pst to this folder. I leave the .ost in the default location since we use Exchange.

Then use http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...3A-B7D0-4B16-B8AF-5A6322F4FD01&displaylang=en to backup their .pst files to the H: drive on the network to backup.

.pst and .ost files cant be moved when Outlook is open. .pst files also can't not be merged together. When the backup process starts and say it's pointing to the H: drive and there is alreayd an archive.pst with the same name, it will automatically delete that .pst and then create a new one.

 

[bigdan]

To be honest Osiris i wasnt able to make too much sense of what you just said. too high level for me!

But I'm on a computer now which doesnt have any email in the inbox, but does have a separate 'account' for gmail emails. So at the absolute root there's both an "Outlook Today" with a plus next to it, and "Gmail" with a plus next to it. Both of these have pst files which must be automatically made b/c I didnt do any backing up on this.

I'll assume these have my contacts. Wish there was a way of testing. But I think the issue is resolved and the thread can be closed, unless there is in fact a way of testing?

Oh as a sidenote, this Outlook 2000 is *extremely* slow, any particular reason? I dont suppose I can simply download a later version?

 

[KSoD]

Honestly i dont think that Outlook 2000 had the OST files. I think that was for Office 2007 products. Even so they are not present with Office 2010 again. XD

As when i create a email account i can choose which .PST file i want to use. Instead of a separate one being created everytime.

If it is slow, there is nothing you can do but jump to Live Mail. You can get a 60 Day Trial of Office 2007 but that is about it.

AFAIK there is no way to know without making a backup and testing.

 

[Osiris]

Outlook 2000 did and Outlook 2010 does so as well.

 

[KSoD]

I have checked every where i have Outlook 2010 data and not a single OST file is located anywhere. For The Technical Beta the storage location for the PST file is different than it previously was.

C:\Users\<user name>\Documents\Outlook Files

That is where the .PST files are stored now. That is not the same lcoation they used to be in previous versions. So some changes have been made for the TB. For this install i dont have any files located there as when i created my email accounts i was able to choose my backup location on a separate drive where i had my previous version already backed up. It is now using that location instead of the default location for the .PST files.

So i dont know for certain what changes have been made when it comes to the OST files and that. But i do know that the PST files are now located in a different spot. If that continues when the Beta starts soon or when the final comes out is yet to be seen. But the Technical Beta this is what i see.