Retrieving outlook express contacts

[hokie64]

Hey everyone,

Mother's computer crashed a while back, so I whipped one together and brought it home for thanksgiving. Everything works great except for that I can't figure out how to get her outlook contacts back. Her old hard disk is intact and installed, but I can't figure out how to get to the contacts. We did this before, only I was still at home and was able to export the contacts from outlook before the computer truly died. Not sure how to continue with this other than to try to repair the old computer and put the old hard disk back in.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Martoch]

This isn't working?

* Select Tools | Address Book... from the menu in Outlook Express.
* Now select File | Import | Address Book (WAB)... from the address book menu.
* Select the backup copy of your Outlook Express address book.
* Click Open.
* Now click OK.

[hokie64]

Ah- No I believe I did not word my question correctly.

I have the hard disk, but I did export the files previously. When I start up outlook from the other hard disk, I expected the contacts to be there as well. They were not. When I start outlook from the other hard drive, it is as if I am starting it for the first time. Is it possible my mother was mistaken on which email program she used? Or is this normal operation?

The "old" backup file that I spoke of does not seem to work when I follow that procedure. It is 174k contacts file, and it says it imports correctly, but no contacts seem to show up.

It is a .wab file.

I know the data has to be there, I just need to figure out how to get to it.

[hokie64]

I realized I may have been a little cryptic before, and I have a simpler question.

Is there a location in a certain directory of all the outlook express data that I could copy from the old hard disk into the correct location on the new hard disk for it to work properly? Or any method that would accomplish the same thing? I realized we needed the email data as well as the contact list.

Thanks in advance.

[Foggy]

If you are using xp you might try it's file transfer wizard, I have used it many times transfering files from an old computer to a new one and it always transfered the email files a nd folders inc. the address book but i'm not sure how to get the files from a drive, might set it up as a slave?

[Big_Daddy]

I wonder if the contacts are hidden somewhere in a sub directory. Try using Thunderbird to import the WAB and see what happens

Hokie Hi

[BipolarBill]

I would search the entire old drive for anything named WAB. Sometimes, it's WAB.EXE and sometimes it's username.WAB.

[Toadman]

Isn't your inbox, calendar and contacts backed up in an outlook.pst file?

[Martoch]

Isn't your inbox, calendar and contacts backed up in an outlook.pst file?

They are in Outlook, not Outlook Express.

You can manually copy over the message files...
1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Maintenance tab, click Store Folder.
3. Select the folder location, and then press CTRL+C to copy the location.
4. Click Cancel, and then click Cancel again to close the dialog box.
5. Click Start, and then click Run.
6. In the Open box, press CTRL+V, and then click OK.
7. On the Edit menu, click Select All.
8. On the Edit menu, click Copy, and then close the window.
9. Right-click any empty space on your desktop, click New, and then click Folder.
10. Type mail backup for the folder name, and then press ENTER.
11. Double-click the Mail Backup folder to open it.
12. On the Edit menu, click Paste.
13. Close the Mail Backup window.