Outlook 2002 - lost everything

Hi there,

don't know if anyone can help me here but Outlook 2002 was working fine yestreday.

Today when I powered up my PC and launched outlook it mentioned something about configuring which was really out of the ordinary - I pressed cancel and went to my inbox and everthing had gone, from pop3 email accounts, contacts and about 8 months of mail!!!!!

My life has just collapsed!!!!!!

I am running XP Home edition.

Anyone got any ideas? Any ideas at all?

Thanks

 

Have you tried a search of your system for .pst files to see if the data is still there?
drive:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
For address book I believe the file type to look for is .pab

Regards,

CrazyM

 

Hi CrazyM

I have found the file -- Outlook decided to point at outlook1.pst rather than outlook.pst.

I renamed both of them and now have my inbox and sent box back - I simply swapped the names round.

However when I go to send new message I now cannot use the "To" box to access my contacts. I have to find the contact in the "Contacts" field, right click and send message to contact - if that makes sense.

Also my email accounts have disappeared, so I cannot send and receive.

Very peculiar -- any suggestions?

 

rbw91;

After CrazyM finishes helping you fix this, I will show you how to back up your profile so that you can recover with just a click of the mouse.

Close Hauled

 

That would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

 

Did you find the .pab file?

 

No I cannot find it.

Done a search on all files and folders (hidden included) against .pab and have also looked in documents and settings where the .pst file is and it is missing.

AVG and Housecall show me as having no virus infection.

Is this something that system restore would fix?

At the moment I have 2 problems.

1) Address book missing and

2) Email Accounts have disappeared - I use 2 email addresses interrogating a pop3 account. I cannot send and receive although I suppose I could reinstall them manually.

Thanks for the help you are giving me though.

 

Did you keep your addresses in the Contacts folder?

 

Yes and they are still there.

But I cannot use the "new mail" function and access them in the "To" box or "cc" field.

Does that make sense?

 

It's fixable. What I am more concerned about is your data. Is all of your data intact?

 

If you mean have I got all of the historical emails back then yes and when I launch outlook they are all there.

Outlook pointed towards a different profile - so I closed Outlook down, went into explorer and swapped the names of the profiles round by renaming them.

Cheers

 

Now that we have confirmed your data is intact, let's start working on the other problem.

I have Outlook 2002 as well, so I can walk you through it. Are you ready?

 

Yep..... fire away

 

First. Single click on the "Inbox" icon in the left column, in between "Outlook Today" and "Calender".

 

Second. Click on Tools and select "Customize...". Click on the Toolbars tab and make sure that "Standard" and "Menu Bar" are checked.

 

Are they back?

 

I am in my inbox.

However from top to bottom the icons are

Outlook today
Calendar
Contacts
Deleted Items
Drafts
Inbox
Journal
Notes
Outbox
Sent Items
Tasks

I am currently looking at my inbox.

 

Done the toolbars - they were already checked.

 

OK,

I just re-read your post

Could you please clarify this?

 

If I click on "Contacts" I can see the list of peple whom I have put in there.

That data is not corrupted.

However when I click on "New Mail" and the blank email template of "Unititled Message" opens in the new window, when I press the "To" button the contacts in the "Contacts Folder" do not appear in the small box that opens asking me who I want to send the email to.

It is as if the new email does not know where the contacts folder is, so does not give the the option of sending these people mail.

I have right-clicked on the "Contacts" tab which opens up my list of contacts, gone to properties and tried to get the Outlook Addess book box ticked but it is greyed out.

In short my contacts are there - but I cannot send ail to them via the new email message function - I have to write the individual email address out manually.

 

Hold on.... Still working on it. I know the answer, just can't remember....
Close Hauled

 

I think I found it. Typing response...

 

Go to Tools and select Address Book.

In the Address Book dialog box, click on Tools and select Options.

In the Addressing dialog box, you may find the answer there.

Try clicking the "Add..." button, and looking there for your lost contacts.

 

That's not done it - but thinking about it there seems to be the same problem here.

I have just gone into email accounts to create a PAB. That is also where my pop3 details are set up - which have also disappeared.

So the answer will be the understanding of where the details in the Tools > Email Accounts have gone.

Make sense?

 

I hate to do this to you, but I am getting sleepy. It is two in the morning here. Can we take this up tomorrow? My brain is mush.