This tutorial is designed to provide a quick and easy way to back up your Microsoft® Outlook® e-mail. For many of us, our e-mail is our lifeline to our business. It is important to make regular backups in case of a hardware or software failure. You never know how important your e-mail is until you lose it.
This tutorial will also provide a means to easily restore you e-mail and contacts. For example, you may need to restore your e-mail and contacts following a system rebuild or you may simply want to move your information to a different computer. |
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MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 2007 - BACKUP |
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The following procedure is valid only for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. You can determine which version you are using by opening Outlook and clicking on Help > About Microsoft Outlook.
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The Personal Folder file (.pst / PST) is the place where Outlook stores its data (when you're using Outlook without Microsoft® Exchange Server). Each Personal Folder file contains all of your Outlook folders, including the Inbox, Calendar, and Contacts. You may have a single .pst file (usually called "Internet Folders" or "Personal Folders" in your Folder List), and you may also have an additional .pst file that you use to archive messages (named "Archive Folders"). By backing up these PST files you will be backing up all your Outlook information.
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In previous versions of Outlook, it was difficult to locate the folder containing the personal folder files. Developers have made this task much easier in Outlook 2007.
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There are two ways to access the location of your data files. In the main menu, you can either click File > Data File Management... or Tools > Account Settings...
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If not already selected, click on the "Data
Files" tab. You may have a single data file or multiple data
files. These "Data Files" are where you store your email messages,
calendar, tasks and other items. |
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Highlight the data file that you are interested in
backing up and click on the "Open
Folder..." icon. Clicking on this icon will
automatically launch Windows Explorer and take you to the location where
this data file is stored. |
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Within the folder you should find an outlook.pst file  . Burn this file to a CDROM disk or other backup source. If you
archive your email, be sure to backup the archive.pst file as well. Prior to backing up these files, Outlook will need
to be closed. |
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7. |
The table below lists key Outlook files that you may
want to back up in addition to your Personal Folder(s). You will need to
completely exit Outlook prior to copying these files. Depending upon
your configuration some or all of these files may be present in your
Outlook directory. |
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| Type of
File |
Name or Extension |
| Personal Folders |
.pst files |
| Outlook Bar shortcuts |
.fav files |
| Rules Wizard rules |
.rwz files |
| RSS subscription names |
.sharing.xml.obi files |
| Known feed list for RSS |
.xml.kfl files |
| Nicknames |
.nick files |
| Customized toolbar settings |
outcmd.dat |
| Customized system folder views |
Views.dat |
| Macros and VBA programs |
VbaProject.otm |
| Signatures |
.rtf, .htm, and .txt files |
| Stationary |
.htm files |
| Templates |
.oft files |
| Dictionary |
.dic files |
Stores a reference to which extensions (addins)
you have loaded.
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extend.dat files |
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Compatibility Note
Microsoft
introduced a new .pst format with the release of Office 2003 which
has a greater storage capacity and supports multilingual Unicode (Unicode: A character encoding
standard that enables multiple languages to be represented by using
a single character set.). Personal folder files (.pst)
created using Office 2003 or 2007 will not be able to be opened by
earlier versions of Office. To create a data file that is compatible
with Outlook 2002 and earlier, you must first create a new data file
in the Outlook 97-2002 format using the "Add" icon in the Data
Files dialog box. Then you must select File > Import and Export from the main menu
and import your email from the 2003/2007 .pst data file to the new
97-2002 data file that you just created. Visit this link for more
information.
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8. |
MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 2007 - RESTORE
If you have followed the steps above to backup your Outlook data,
restoring is simple. All you do is copy the backup PST file(s) into the
folder that you located when you initially backed up your work. |
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