[Ham-Computers] RE: Archive problems.

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

KD7JYK wrote:
> A message from a friend of mine:
> 
> "This is probably dumb, but how the heck do I copy my Outlook archive files
> to a CD?  I've been sitting here going over options, and so far the only
> thing I've come up with is to highlight each individual email, and click
> "Save as."  That seems ridiculous, surely there's a way to just copy the
> entire file, or a bunch of files?  Nothing I've tried seems to work.  Well,
> I did manage to copy something to a CD, but now I can't open it."
> 
> Any ideas?


>>> Someone replied:
I don't have a Win machine around now to check, but I know you can export as much or as little as you want to an archive.  This appears in the form of a .PST file.

When you have a PST file, you can open it regardless of where.

Outlook is a PITA, but MS does a fairly decent job with help files.  Hit F1 and look up Archive.

You can save folders, the address book, or whatever you select.


>>> My response:
Unfortunately, PST files are only available in "Outlook", not "Outlook Express".  I wish Microsoft used a different name for each product as they're quite different.  Outlook is meant to be the front-end for the Microsoft Exchange e-mail server and has some internet (POP and SMTP) e-mail capabilities (plus it's a "licensed" app...not free).  "Outlook Express" is designed specifically for internet mail and newsreader purposes and doesn't have the connector for Microsoft Exchange.

Below are a few articles from the Microsoft Knowledgebase.  The first shows the differences between "Outlook" and "Outlook Express".  The others show a few different ways to backup and restore "Outlook Express" data.  A couple of the articles look similiar - I don't use Outlook Express, so I can't tell which is the better process.  However, one article is "newer" than the other - use whichever works best in your situation.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257824/EN-US/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/270670
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188854/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257173/en-us


As for Microsoft Outlook, it really isn't that much of a PITA...in fact, it's probably the *best* business e-mail product out there.  It's far from perfect, but much better than Lotus Notes and it gets the job done quite well.  Now, Microsoft Exchange, the server back-end for Outlook...that's a royal PITA!

One last note, if using Outlook and making backups of the PST file to CD/DVD, you'll need to copy the PST back to a local drive prior to using it...Outlook doesn't like "Read-Only" PST files.  With this in mind, you'll also need to remove the Read-Only attribute after restoring the PST from a CD/DVD.

73,

  - Aaron Hsu, NN6O