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Does anybody know how to backup Outlook? Twice now I've had to reformat my hard drive and re-install all my programs. Since I customize Outlook quite a bit, it took me forever to re-do it. This time I lost all my lists.
I've downloaded Microsoft's pfbackup.exe, but I don't know how to use it to restore data. And Microsoft's web page help is less than helpful.
I'm about ready to start keeping all my lists on Word, because then I know I can back them up on My Documents. Thanks.
I installed the MS back up utility you noted (pfbackup.exe). You go to the File menu in Outlook scroll down to Backup and click on it. A dialog box should appear - one of the choices is Open Backup.
You can only open a backup if you've made a backup with the utility. I don't think it resurrects the already fried. I store my backup on a network drive - so that if my local drive fails - I still have my personal folders. HTH
Your Outlook information is stored in a .pst file. If you have lost/deleted the pst file and you did not have a copy of it, you cannot restore the information (unless it is residing on your Palm to be synced back in, in which case you still have to do the tweaking that you mentioned).
I haven't had much luck with the MS pst backup utility, it is too buggy and can stop working with no warning that it is not backing up any more. My solution is a series of daily scheduled tasks which kill outlook, mirror a copy of the pst file, and launch outlook again.
You can only copy/mirror/backup the pst file if it is not in use, which is why you have to kill outlook first.
Pam
Did you try this?
http://office.microsoft.com/Download.../pfbackup.aspx
This works flawlessly...
Try it and you will see. Any problems, get with me off-line
Regards,
Buzz
Burton L. Bruggeman
ActiveWords, Inc.
407.894.1177
407.894.2277 (fax)
buzz@activewords.com
www.activewords.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ActiveWords
Exporting can take a long time if you have a big pst file with lots of items in it. Shutting down Outlook and copying the pst file produces the same results in a fraction of the time.
Pam
Thanks for all the help. I've finally figured out how to use the automatic backup, and for now it's working. If it stops, I'll back up the .pst file manually.
I also found a helpful program in "Microsoft Office Tools" (found by going to Start/Programs/Microsoft Office Tools) called "Save My Settings Wizard" which saves all the customization that I do in Outlook.
I have my hard drive partitioned into C: & D:
D: is MyDocuments and I have a folder there called OUTLOOK. That is where I keep my outlook.pst and have survived multiple crashes, reformats, hard drive changes, etc. & have never lost anything. As soon as I open Outlook (after a fresh install) I tell it where to find outlook.pst & it opens ready to go. I am sure that if I backed it up to a CD & came over to your house & opened outlook I could look at all my stuff.
But wait. I have a Maxell external 80 & 120 GB Hard Drive & there I regulary back up My Documents. So if I really crashed bad I could get at least a weeks worth.
Oh but even more insurance is Palm Pilot. Because when synced daily with Outlook I have everything except e-mail.
So there are many options to keeping everything backed up & crash proof unless there is a nuclear holocaust because then everybody loses everything magnetic :shock:
I am not going to tell you how many times my Outlook data is backed up. Okay, I am. As you say, it is synced to my Palm, which I also sync at home and backup to SD card. As well BackupBuddy mirrors my Palm files across our network to another location. The information on my computer and the network location is automatically mirrored to two other locations, and backed up on tape. So that is . . . almost ten copies . . .
I'm not paranoid.
Pam