Where and in what format does Microsoft Outlook XP and 2003 Keep emails?

Cross

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Ok I have a ton of old emails and I have the old programs file of the HD it was on. I pulled the folders i thought would have any info to my laptop to try and gt these old emails back for a court case I am in.

However I am at a loss as to where Outlook downloads and stores emails and what format they are in.

I do know it was atleast outlook xp but most likely outlook 2003. Either way I need to access those emails.

Can anyone help out?

Ok now I have the files mentioned but when I go to open them I get this:

File access denied. You do not have permission to access the requested file.

Ok now what the heck do I do? I am using office 2003 and I believe I was using either office xp or 2003 when I had this outlook account. (Import does not work either)
 
Generally, they are stored in a pst file. If you have outlook open, then (in 2003) click on 'Tools, Options'. Choose the 'Mail Setup' tab and click on 'Data Files'. This tells you the full path to the pst file. Normally, it is;
%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst

Of course, this is entirely customisable (ie: you can change where the pst file is located). In older versions of MS-Outlook (eg: 97 and 2000), it is similar, but I think (by my rapidly fading memory), it can be obtained via the 'Mail' option in the control panel.

At a guess, if you installed outlook with the defaults on your old HD, then it will be in the path specified and you should be able to import this file. You may have to save the outlook.pst file onto your laptop and then import it by choosing 'File, Import and Export', choose 'Import from another program or file', choose 'Personal Folder File (pst)' and browse to the directory where you saved the pst file. Make sure you import the messages into another folder, otherwise they will be imported into your 'Personal Folder' and will be nightmarish, trying to sort out what were imported messages and what were your original messages.
 
%userprofile%

Hmm tell me thats not in the windows folder or I am SOL.... I think I have most of the other folder still..... it was locked out but other then that...

Or is it hidden? Or am I thinking to hard and should just think %userprofile%=my user name under my documents and settings?
 
Ok I think I know where it is now now, to just go back and Copy that section to CDR
 
Cross said:
%userprofile%

Hmm tell me thats not in the windows folder or I am SOL.... I think I have most of the other folder still..... it was locked out but other then that...

Or is it hidden? Or am I thinking to hard and should just think %userprofile%=my user name under my documents and settings?

Quite correct... %USERPROFILE% is your user name directory under the 'Documents and Settings' folder. The easiest way to access this, is click on 'Start, Run' and type in;
%USERPROFILE%
the click on 'Ok'...
 
Cripes... Forgot to mention (cause I have it turned on by default), but the 'Application Data' is a hidden directory, so you will need to turn on viewing of hidden directories (from an explorer window, choose 'Tools, Folder Options', click on the 'View' tab and make sure that 'Show Hidden Files and Folders' is selected..
 
Yeah I caught that above when I went looking, I found it on the laptop now i just need to go back to the external drive and get it from the other HD.
 
Ok now I have the files mentioned but when I go to open them I get this:

File access denied. You do not have permission to access the requested file.

Ok now what the heck do I do? I am using office 2003 and I believe I was using either office xp or 2003 when I had this outlook account.
 
It was probably a different user account than before, so you're probably going to have to take ownship of the file, from the security tab. As a rule in the future, always keep your usernames and passwords the same from build to build.
 
My user name has always been the same. But I will try safe mod and taking control of the file.
 
I seem to remember having to go through safe mode to access the main admin account which will let you change privliages on files.

Maybe thats just the way I got used to doing it but then that would not surprise me :p
 
Cross said:
I seem to remember having to go through safe mode to access the main admin account which will let you change privliages on files.

Maybe thats just the way I got used to doing it but then that would not surprise me :p
IIRC, only XP home requires you to be in safe mode to claim ownership. Pro did not. Again, i THINK this is true, not 100%
 
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