Can’t access stored emails

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Hi,
It’s been a long time since I last posted. In that period a lot has changed. Both my old computers have gone to God. I now have a 64-bit desktop computer with three hard drives, running Windows 7. And that’s where my problems now lie. One of those problems is with my old emails. My technician placed my two old hard drives into my new machine. It was some effort on his part, so I don’t think there is any question of taking them out again for any reason.
I need to access my store of old emails from one of those additional drives. The tech doesn’t want to know me unless I pay him lots of money. So he’s out. My only other option is to turn to the expertise of this forum. Those old emails have vital information. I just cannot access them from the other drive. I thought that getting those emails out would be no problem. I was wrong. Can anybody please tell me how I can do this? My email program is Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 on my new drive. On the old drive it is also Microsoft Outlook, but I’m not sure if its 2007 or 2010 now.

Thanks for your time

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Should be relatively straightforward, search the old drive for the Outlook data files (*.pst) and then use file/open in Outlook.

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Should be relatively straightforward, search the old drive for the Outlook data files (*.pst) and then use file/open in Outlook.

OP will probably have to temporarily change Control Panel/Folder Options/View setting under “Hidden files and folders” from “Don’t show hidden…” to “Show hidden…” to allow access to Outlook’s “*.pst” files.

In Vista & Win7 the pst files should be under either “C:Users[username]AppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlook” or “C:Users[username]AppDataRoamingMicrosoftOutlook”. The “AppData” folders are normally hidden.

Best to copy the pst files to a folder somewhere in the Documents folder, then reset the Folder Options/View setting to “Don’t show hidden…” before opening the pst files.

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I attempted just that (*.pst) as my first try and got zero results.

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I’m not sure that I quite understand. Will I try to access these files via the C drive, where they are not stored, or the E drive on my system where they are? Do I then simply type C or E:Users[username]AppDataRoamingMicrosoftOutlook”? I don’t think I understand the rest of it.

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…Will I try to access these files via the C drive, where they are not stored, or the E drive on my system where they are?…

Whether the files are on C: or E: or some other drive makes no difference.

Windows default is that user’s “AppData” folder, and it’s contents, are hidden. Therefore to access that folder, or its sub-folders, you must temporarily change the “Hidden files and folders” setting to “Show hidden…” to allow access to Outlook’s “*.pst” files no matter what drive they are on.

Once you have changed that setting you should be able to use Windows Explorer to copy the pst files to a folder in your C:Users[username]Documents folder, and subsequently open them in Outlook.

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Coochin, haven’t used Outlook, question: is it possible that the emails might have been passworded [on the fly] before being stored? PST files are not readable as text files, correct? I was thinking of a rather clunky work-around.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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…is it possible that the emails might have been passworded [on the fly] before being stored? PST files are not readable as text files, correct?…

Yes, it is possible the pst files have been password-protected, but PstPassword can recover passwords from pst files.

Pst files are not readable as text files, but I have used Emailchemy several times to extract email messages from pst files (Emailchemy is not free).

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Download and run Everything Search (http://www.voidtools.com). Then type *.pst in the search box. If its on one of your drives, Everything will find it even if its hidden or a protected OS file.

Jerry

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This looks very useful – thanks Jerry

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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I’ll try those tips. Now there’s an additional question I have about contents on one of the secondary drives. I also need to access other files like Program Files and Users. They are also hidden. How can I do that?

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In folders options, you can unhide normally-hidden files. Either Windows or any known-good 3rd party utility can unhide and reveal those files and folders.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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