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John Kotuby - 11 Feb 2006 22:23 GMT

Hi all,

Well I think I caused my own problem here. I had to compleletly reinstall
Windows XP and Office from scratch due to a drive failure. Everything went
well until I tried copying a backup copy of Outlook .pst from the original
install (which was saved to a network folder to restore all my Contacts,
Settings and Mail should I experience a drive failure).

It seemed to have worked as all the old Email and Contacts appeared
properly.
However, when I click the TO button when creating a new email I get the
error:
"The Address list could not be displayed......" ad infinitum.
I have researched and tried everything suggested to no avail.
I deleted the Outlook.pst in Local Settings for the proper user.

I have just finished uninstalling and re-installing the entire Office 2003
install.

Guess what... I am still getting the error.
Can somebody please tell me how I can completely uninstall Outlook. Pull
everything out by the roots and make sure I get a CLEAN install with no
remnants of the previous install.

I am still recovering mentally and emotionally from having to completely
re-install all the components to a development workstation .. and now this.
BTW.. this time I added a drive and am running RAID 1 to avoid a similar
disaster.

With a clean re-install I can try to Import the original Contacts by first
Exporting to a CSV file (from an install on my 2nd workstation) and then
importing from the CSV file.

But first I must kill the ghost of my botched install.
Thanks for your help....

Reply to this Message

Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] - 12 Feb 2006 01:25 GMT

It mystifies me why you felt you need to export your Outlook data to a
different file format so you could import it back into Outlook's format.
That's a good way to lose data and corrupt connections, which you have
succeeded in doing.
Do you still have your original Outlook data file? If so, here is what the
Help Files will tell you on the correct way to migrate your Outlook data:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx

Signature

Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

> Hi all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
> But first I must kill the ghost of my botched install.
> Thanks for your help....

Reply to this Message

John Kotuby - 12 Feb 2006 18:34 GMT

Thanks Russ,

It worked. Sometimes it is hard to find the correct article that applies to
a particular situation. I think maybe the original problem arose because the
Outlook.pst that I copied in as a replacement had been carried forward
(originally) from an Office 2000 install. I installed and set up the new
Outlook 2003, closed Outlook, deleted the original Outlook.pst, copied the
old Outlook.pst into the proper folder. The old email showed up properly and
so did the contacts. It was only when I was creating a new email and tried
clicking the To button that the problem arose.

I guess Outlook was looking for the 2003 version of the Outlook.pst that I
had deleted (even though both files had the same name and were placed in the
same location). Following the outlined procedure and leaving the original
Outlook.pst in place, copying the old PST into the folder with a different
name, and then pointing the email account to it resulted in a warning
message that certain features of the 2003 version would be lost. But I
clicked OK anyway.

That is why I was considering the exporting/importing method .. so I would
retain the advanced features of 2003.
That's OK, I'm not really concerned about foreign languages and unicode
anyway.

Thanks again...

> It mystifies me why you felt you need to export your Outlook data to a
> different file format so you could import it back into Outlook's format.
[quoted text clipped - 38 lines]
>> But first I must kill the ghost of my botched install.
>> Thanks for your help....

Reply to this Message

Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] - 12 Feb 2006 21:35 GMT

The only supported method for transferring Outlook data is the one contained
in that article. Deleting a PST and copying over another one in its place
will corrupt the profile.
Even when you transfer a PST correctly, you will most likely still need to
reset the Outlook Address Book Service so it will find your new Contacts
Folder.

Signature

Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

> Thanks Russ,
>
[quoted text clipped - 66 lines]
>>> But first I must kill the ghost of my botched install.
>>> Thanks for your help....

Reply to this Message