BleepingComputer.com: Help importing contacts & mail into Outlook 2002

Greetings,

I need help importing or associating .pst data with a profile. Actually I'm not sure if importing the .pst is the right way to do it.

Details: My old computer crashed. Someone gave me a new one (new to me at least). Running XP Home on a Toshiba laptop. I have installed Office 2002 XP and am interested in re-populating Outlook 2002 XP.

I had a million problems with getting my mail settings working. Along the way, I made a new Profile by way of Start, Control Panel, Mail and Bingo! All mail settings were healed! But with a new, empty profile.

Now I have two profiles! One is called "Outlook" which has contacts, an Inbox with many sub-folders, sent mail, etc. But the mail settings do not work. I get "Operation Failed" and the test e-mail settings fails to authenticate. ANYway, the "Outlook" profile is populated and has bad mail settings. (Took about 12 hours to import this data.)

The other that I made is "Carl 52," but it's essentially empty except for the fresh e-mail it successfully accepted from my e-mail accounts. I just backed this profile up as a .pst file in order to save the mail after whatever brilliant ideas I get and try....lol...

My current challenge is to somehow import all the stuff (mail, contacts, Inbox and sub-folders) into the "Carl 52" profile, either from the "Outlook" profile, or from the 6 month old .pst file. WITHOUT messing-up my now working e-mail settings. Then perhaps delete the "Outlook" profile (or just let it sit).

I'd like to do this in the most efficient way. My old .pst file is on an external drive. I am about to copy them to the new computer's hard drive for future speedy access.

After all this, I want to Import 3 other files which I save called "Archive 001" "Archive 002" and "Archive 003."

Like everything, this is probably easy (once you know how -lol).

I'd love some step-by-step directions...

Thank you in advance,

Dr Carl

Just few tidbits, not a comprehensive answer at all, and based on Outlook 2003 and not 2002:

Few outpost files are in
C:\Documents and Settings\<userName>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
Files I see are outcmd.dat, Outlook.NK2, ourlook.srs, outlook.xml, outlPRT. No idea what they are.

.pst file and archive.pst are in
C:\Documents and Settings\<userName>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
also here are extend.dat, mailbox.PAB, outlook.log

Outlook.pst contains contacts and mails in one bundle.
I once made changes, and had to reimport contacts and it wasn't easy. I actually had to make another layer in Contacts, so I have some empty Outlook thing and under it is my contacts list. Unfortuanately don't recall the details

UPDATE

The Comcast account is now the only one that is fully functional. The Yahoo and the Gmail accounts now return the following error when I press the "test account settings" button:

"Send test e-mail message: Unable to send test message. Please verify the E-mail address field"



I have even run the Detect and Repair function with the MS Office inserted.

I have verified everything up one side and down the other. I have tried all sorts of combinations. I am at a loss to figure this one out and, as usual, look forward to help from the experts and geniuses here.


I AM RUNNING:

Toshiba laptop
Outlook 2002 (updated)
Avast! antivirus (same problem with Avast! disabled)
Home network - DLink Router
XP Pro, SP3
Window's firewall with exception for Outlook.exe

WHAT I HAVE TRIED:

Uninstalling the copy of Outlook 2003 Pro which came with the machine
Uninstalling everything I could find that is Outlook related including folders like Office 10, Office 11, Outlook, etc….in the Local Settings folder
Running CCleaner
Reinstalling Office 2002 from my purchased copy
Made different Profiles via Control Panel \ Mail
Triple checked all mail settings
Tried all kinds of combinations of cheked and un-checked options boxes in mail settings
Tried alternate SMTP ports 25, 465,or 587
Changed server timeout time from 1 min to 2 min (error returns with 5-20 seconds anyway)


Comcast: fully functional. Yahoo and Gmail…receive but can not send. ARGHHhhhh!

Oh please….my Kingdom for the answer (j/k – how about a nice big Thank You?)…please make my Gmail and Yahoo email accounts work from within Outlook.

I’ll get to importing contacts and accessing archived folders later

Thank you in advance.

drcarl

UPDATE – SUNDAY June 28, 2009

Well, I must have done SOMEthing right. Now all mail accounts are fully functional.

I restored a few folders (that I was careful not to permanently delete) from the Recycle Bin. Maybe that was it.

Now I am interested in 1) making my contacts folder viable and useable. I have a .pst which I called contacts. I hope to make the data accessible without messing up my now working mail settings. I wonder if I must actually import the file, or if I can simply put a copy on the drive and tell Outlook where the file is...and associate Outlook with the file...?

I also hope to 2) be able to access three folders (with tons of mail n stuff) called Archive 001, Archive 002, etc.

I got rid of the two non-working profiles which I set-up with Control Panel \ Mail, and now have only ONE profile. I’d like to 3) stop outlook from asking me which profile I want to use (since there is only one) and I did indeed check the “make default” box several times.

That’s the news.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Dr Carl

nevermind....I figured it out.