Outlook tutorial

Restoring and creating and Outlook backup

Email messages may contain important information that you don't want to lose. Creating backups is essential if you depend on your email messages for important information. In this chapter I will show you how to backup and restore your Outlook email folders manually.

The PST file

In the email environment we are using in this tutorial, all Outlook data is stored on the local machine in a PST file. (This is different if you use an Exchange Server mailbox). The PST file contains email messages, Contacts and Calender entries. Creating a backup of Outlook data is simply a matter of copying the PST file somewhere else, somewhere safe preferably.

If you use Windows XP, the PST file is usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\<your_computer_account_name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\. If you don't see the PST file it may be hidden. You can let Windows Explorer show hidden files by (in Windows Explorer) selecting Tools > Folder Options... > select 'View'-tab > Select 'Show hidden files and folders' and click OK.

If you are not sure where your PST file is located, right-click 'Personal Folders' in the folder tree in the left pane and choose 'Properties for Personal Folders'. In the properties windows click the Advanced... button. The location of the PST field is displayed in the filename field.

Once found, close Outlook and copy the PST file to another location, preferably a CD or DVD, because they can be stored safely.

Restoring an Outlook backup

Creating and restoring email backups is not as elegant as you might expect from a popular email client like Outlook. Especially restoring a backup is a bit complicated. Follow the steps below to restore an Outlook email backup.

1. Copy the PST backup file to your harddisk and remember the location. You will need it later.
2. In Windows (Xp or 2000) go to Start > Settings > Control Panel >Mail and click the E-mail Accounts... button. Alternatively, select Tools > E-mail Accounts... in Outlook.
3. Choose 'Add a new e-mail account' and click NEXT
4. Choose POP3 and click NEXT
5. Fill out the proper info in the POP3 setup window that appears and click NEXT. (Read page 2 of this tutorial if you want don't know what to fill out)
6. Click Finish
7. Repeat step 2, but now choose 'View or change existing e-mail accounts'.
8. In the white pane select the email account you just created and click the 'New Outlook Data File' button.
9. In the 'New Outlook Data File' window that now appears select Office Outlook Personal Folder File (.pst) and click OK. Alternatively, if you are restoring an Outlook 97, 98, 2000 or 2002 pst file, choose the lower option.
10. Now select the PST file you copied to your harddisk in step 1 of this tutorial and click OK.
11. Finally you can set the 'Deliver new e-mail to the following location' option (see image above) to the correct location.

The new email account you set up now uses the backup PST file. Especially when working with multiple email accounts you are advised to give sensible names and locations to your PST files so you can always tell them apart!

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