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Shard
Asked: 2009-05-27 20:53:46 +0800 CST

Location of Outlook 2003 data

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After doing a backup, then a reinstall of a client's Windows XP computer I forgot to create a .pst of their mail from outlook 2003. I have all the data from the old installation but I don't know where Outlook 2003 stores its data.

Where abouts can I find this data?

windows outlook outlook-2003

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    c:\documents and settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\

    by default for PSTs

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  2. Outlook 2003 saves its data in so called "Personal Folder Files" .pst, which is an acryonym for "Personal Storage Table."

    The .pst personal folder file is stored in a folder of your Windows profile. If you don't change the path manually, the standard path on a Windows XP installation is 

    C:\Documents and Settings\PROFILE_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\

    One important advice: if the user had "auto archive" enabled, there could be another (or more) .pst in your backup: archive.pst. The file contains objects which were exported in order to keep the main .pst file from growing too large. Search for all *.pst files.

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  3. If the data hadn't been backed up, the default file for the Outlook account files won't be .PST, but .OST. Only backups and archives will have the .PST file extension.

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