Open Your Existing Personal Data Store in Outlook

If you have an old pst or an old archive pst and you want to view your old email, you can open it in your Outlook profile.

Do not use File, Import and Export menu, especially if it's an Archive pst - you may end up with duplicates and will not be able to remove them using Autoarchive (because archive uses the modified date and importing changes the modified date). Just open it in Outlook.

To open it while Outlook is running:

Open the File, Open, Outlook Data File menu and browse to find the pst you want to open.

This screen shot is from Outlook 2003. In older versions of Outlook, browse to File, Open, Personal Folders File.

 

 


 

To add an existing personal data store to your profile:

If you just created your profile and have the Profile dialog open, skip to Step 3 after clicking Finish in the profile wizard.

  1. Open Control Panel and find the Mail applet. If you use the Category view in Windows XP's Control Panel, look for the Mail applet in the User Accounts category.
  2. Select the Show Profiles button.
  3. Select your new profile from the Mail dialog and choose Properties, then Email Accounts and finally, View or change email accounts.
  4. Select New Outlook data file and find your existing PST, add it to the profile and set it as the default.
  5. Ok your way back to the Email Accounts dialog and select the PST you just added in the Deliver new e-mail to the following location menu.
  6. When you return to the Mail Setup dialog, choose Data Files and remove the extra personal folders from your profile.

Note:

  • While the New dialog looks like you can only use it to create a new pst, you can select an existing one to use.

To remove it from Outlook when you are finished using it:

Right click on the top level and choose Close.

Note: You can easily have several pst's in your profile and only need to close it if you prefer to keep the folder list less cluttered or need to move the file.