Thread: Outlook 2003 pros, a question for you

My computer has been running really slow lately, so I am thinking it is time to just reinstall my XP operating system using the Dell restore disk and reloading Outlook 2003 while reloading Office.
Bummer is, I have created numerous folders in my present Outlook 2003 program that hold all sorts of old emails I don't want to lose and in the Address Book I have created numerous Groups that hold thousands of email addresses I don't want to lose nor the Groups.
I have searched for ways to export my Outlook installation but what I have found only saves email addresses, not all my folders and content nor the Groups with email addresses in my address book.
Is there and way to save this info and then re import it once I have a clean reinstall of the Operating system?
I think I am fucked, but a solution would really be appreciated, as I don't want to lose all of the Folder emails nor the Group contacts in the address book. Hell I don't want to lose any of the info in my Outlook application. What can be done? Thanks

Your huge collection of outlook items may be one of the things that is slowing down your computer. Outlook 2003 gets progressively slower as your number of items goes up. An item can be a mail or contact or calendar item. Delete anything you are not using or do not want to save. It takes a while to manually clean house, but it might save your day to day use from being so slow.

Do all of the mails need to be right there, all the time? You could use AutoArchive to move some out of the main area but still have access to them.

Are you running Microsoft Office Service Pack 3? it is purported to fix some of the issues with Outlook 2003.

Make a .pst file or save your .pst file to an external location before you wipe the OS. This will back up all folders, contacts, calendar items, everything.

From http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA011030811033.aspx :

Another way to make a backup file, which is described in this article, involves exporting (copying) the contents of the message folder to a Personal Folders file (.pst) (Personal Folders file (.pst): Data file that stores your messages and other items on your computer. You can assign a .pst file to be the default delivery location for e-mail messages. You can use a .pst to organize and back up items for safekeeping.) using the Import and Export Wizard. This creates the backup .pst file. You can then copy the .pst file onto a CD or DVD for safekeeping or to move the data to another computer with Outlook installed.

Back up messages to a .pst file

Important You should not export items (item: An item is the basic element that holds information in Outlook (similar to a file in other programs). Items include e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, notes, posted items, and documents.) that were created in multiple languages or in a language that is not supported by your system code page to a file type that does not support Unicode. For example, if you have items that were created in multiple languages in a Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders file (.pst), you should not export the items to a Microsoft Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders file (.pst). The latter file type does not support Unicode. Therefore, all items that contain characters in a language other than those supported by the system code page in text fields other than the body of items, such as To, Subject, and ContactName and BusinessTelephoneNumber properties of Contact items, will be interpreted incorrectly and displayed as question marks (?) and other unintelligible text.

On the File menu, click Import and Export.
Click Export to a file, and then click Next.
In the list, click Personal Folder File (.pst), and then click Next.
Click the folder that contains the messages you want to back up. If the folder contains a subfolder that you want to include, select the Include Subfolders check box, and then click Next.
Under Save exported file as, click Browse, and then specify a name and location for your backup file, for example, Mail Backup.
If you back up a .pst file that you have backed up to before, click one of the following:
Replace duplicates with items exported Existing data will be overwritten with the information in the file being exported.

Allow duplicate items to be created Existing data will not be overwritten, and duplicate information will be added to the backup file.

Do not export duplicate items Existing data will be kept, and the duplicate information in the folder will not be copied to the backup file.

Click Finish.

^^^^^ this should work.

Be aware though that .pst files have a 2GB limit and will not re-import if bigger. You may need to break down your multiple folders into more than one PST file to avoidd this ceiling.

They will import right back to the same place the were when you exported.

Good luck!