Travel Technology - Outlook 2007 - Migration to new Laptop

Firstly Happy New year to all!

I am getting the s10e in the next day or so and wanted to install Office 2007 on it along withe Outlook 2007.

I for how does the pst files work in Outlook. I have created the Personal Folders file in a seperate pst (or is it ost?) file.

What is the best way to move the information to the new laptop (incl contacts, tasks, notes, calendar etc..)

Also any advice on how to use the auto archieve function as I find after installing Outlook on my current laptop, it sort of slows down a lot of things?

What is the most optimal setup in Outlook?

I also read somewhere that there is a limit on how much you can put into the Offline folders before Outlook crashes? Have they fixed this in 2007?

Do you use an Exchange server for your email? If so, then you only need to bring over your pst files to your new laptop and outlook will sync everything else with the exchange, if not using exchange, then copy over the ost file as well.

Do you use an Exchange server for your email? If so, then you only need to bring over your pst files to your new laptop and outlook will sync everything else with the exchange, if not using exchange, then copy over the ost file as well.

Yes I do use an Exchange Server.

so PST files are the Offline ones? (ie. the ones I can't see in OWA?)

The pst files are the offline files, or better the files you have stored locally.

You just need to find where you put them and move them to the new machine and reopen them there.

All the rest will be handled when you connect to outlook it will rebuild the files for you.

If you have cleaned up your pst files compact them on the old machine before moving them and make sure you close outlook before trying to copy it over.

I used BackRex (http://www.backsettings.com/outlook-backup.html)with good results when I upgraded 2 years ago.

I used BackRex (http://www.backsettings.com/outlook-backup.html)with good results when I upgraded 2 years ago.

I just transferred Outlook 2007 from one laptop to two new ones by copying the PST file, reinstalling it and setting up the mail accounts.

What would a $30 program do for me that would be worth it? I mean this sincerely.

thanks for the reply. My other question is how does the Auto Archieve function work in Outlook? At the moment I just stick anything I don't need immediately into the Personal Folders (Offline version - .pst) But it seems this might be causing the computer to run really slow and takes forever to boot up outlook everytime? (is this the case or there are other problems with my computer?)

The auto archive just moves the files you are moving manually at certain times. It should not be slowing down your system at all either way unless your pst file is damaged or it's huge.

If you close the pst file and reopen outlook and it comes up quick, you know the problem is with the pst file, if it comes up slow, it's not the pst file and you should look to something else.

thanks for the reply. My other question is how does the Auto Archieve function work in Outlook? At the moment I just stick anything I don't need immediately into the Personal Folders (Offline version - .pst) But it seems this might be causing the computer to run really slow and takes forever to boot up outlook everytime? (is this the case or there are other problems with my computer?)Auto Archive creates another .pst file so your main Personal Folders .pst file doesn't get to be the size of half your hard drive.

Every year I create a new archive .pst file for that year and change the settings in Auto Archive so Outlook archives to the new archive .pst file.

You do have to remember to copy ALL your .pst files over to a new system when getting a new computer in this setup.

I just transferred Outlook 2007 from one laptop to two new ones by copying the PST file, reinstalling it and setting up the mail accounts.

What would a $30 program do for me that would be worth it? I mean this sincerely.

This was almost two years ago when I was having some problems transferring the PST file from a backup laptop to my new Lenovo. For some reason, I was having some grief with the process and the trial version of BackRex worked like a charm.

That was the only time I used it during the trial period (or perhaps I had downloaded a “lite” version with some features disabled).

This was almost two years ago when I was having some problems transferring the PST file from a backup laptop to my new Lenovo. For some reason, I was having some grief with the process and the trial version of BackRex worked like a charm.

That was the only time I used it during the trial period (or perhaps I had downloaded a “lite” version with some features disabled).

Let me revise my comments. If BackRex can transfer the PST file AND the settings for:


e-mail accounts
the reading pane
the editor
signature files
customized view;

and all the other things that seem not to be carried over by the migration of the PST, then it is probably well worth $30.

Do you know if it does these things?

If you're using Exchange, is it really necessary to do anything other than establish a connection with your Exchange server? If you have files stored locally, couldn't you just move those folders to your exchange server and also have the benefit of seeing them in OWA? :confused:

If you're using Exchange, is it really necessary to do anything other than establish a connection with your Exchange server? If you have files stored locally, couldn't you just move those folders to your exchange server and also have the benefit of seeing them in OWA? :confused:

I have a lot of personal folders which are not in owa.
Just wondering is there a maximum size on how big a personal folder can reach? And also does it affect performance of the machine? Generally do you take out the pst you don't use of the face of outlook, so it doesn't load up EVERYTHING when you start Outlook?

I have a lot of personal folders which are not in owa.
Just wondering is there a maximum size on how big a personal folder can reach? And also does it affect performance of the machine? Generally do you take out the pst you don't use of the face of outlook, so it doesn't load up EVERYTHING when you start Outlook?

Older PSTs max out at 2GB. New ones have no technical limit for size, but they will have performance problems as they get larger.

Unless you have a hard quota on your mailbox size you should leave the email in Exchange rather than putting it in a PST, IMO. There are a lot of reasons for this, including reliability and performance. If you are not using the contents of a PST you shouldn't have it open in Outlook. You'll have issues with startup/shutdown times and potential for corrupting the PST.

And don't get me started about storing PSTs on network drives, but that is a different rant.

Older PSTs max out at 2GB. New ones have no technical limit for size, but they will have performance problems as they get larger.

Unless you have a hard quota on your mailbox size you should leave the email in Exchange rather than putting it in a PST, IMO. There are a lot of reasons for this, including reliability and performance. If you are not using the contents of a PST you shouldn't have it open in Outlook. You'll have issues with startup/shutdown times and potential for corrupting the PST.

And don't get me started about storing PSTs on network drives, but that is a different rant.

Thanks.
Unfortuantely I do have a mail quota of 100MB (which is NO where enough these days!)

I will clean up some of the old pst files and take it out of Outlook (it does have significant performance issues on my machine!)

Generally what is the best way to do this? Sort by date and then just create a pst file for all the dates with this and then remvoe this pst off outlook and save it somewhere else?

Generally what is the best way to do this? Sort by date and then just create a pst file for all the dates with this and then remvoe this pst off outlook and save it somewhere else?

Yeah...100MB is a joke.

As for how to organize your emails, there are many different options. I've seen folks do it by project/case/matter, by date, by contact/conversation and many other options. Without knowing what type of work you do and what your email content really is it is hard to know which will be best for you.

Yeah...100MB is a joke.

....

Our quota at work is only 175MB too. But this is ost. I have 3 pst in Outlook.

Let me revise my comments. If BackRex can transfer the PST file AND the settings for:


e-mail accounts
the reading pane
the editor
signature files
customized view;

and all the other things that seem not to be carried over by the migration of the PST, then it is probably well worth $30.

Do you know if it does these things?

From the BackRex website (http://www.backsettings.com/outlook-backup.html), here’s the list of data and settings saved and restored by BackRex Outlook Backup:

Mail folders
Contacts and Address Book
Tasks
Notes
Calendar
Journal
Signatures
Message rules
Stationery
Personal settings

The free demo version has these limitations:

Does not restore Microsoft Outlook signatures and stationery.
Does not restore Internet Explorer favorites.
Compressed backup password protection disabled.

Hope it's not too late, but you can also transfer over the autocomplete names that come up under the "to" field. I find this extremely helpful.

On your old computer search for a file with the extension .NK2 The file name will be whatever your default PST is named, for example WORK.NK2

Do a search on your new computer and simply copy over the new file and let it rewrite the old one. I recommend doing the search since this file is usually buried way deep in Windows.

Another hopefully helpful tip is that I have all of my PST files (4) on the desktop in a folder called backup. There are a lot of other important files in that folder that I can't afford to lose. By having them in one folder, it makes it easy to back up often.

Hope this helps

Similar to the NK2 file for auto-complete, signatures are just a collection of files in the user profile. They are usually found in %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures for Vista or %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures for XP.

I just tried to load my exchange email onto my new laptop's Outlook 2007 and I have encountered a major problem and just wondered whether anyone can help out!

Firstly I used the Auto Wizard for Outlook to automatically configure the settings by just entering the email address and password. This proved to be a bad mistake.


It then started download all the emails from the exchange server. So far so good.

Then I realised i forgot to uncheck the box "REMOVE email from exchange server". So all my emails are deleted from the online email box and are only on my Laptop Outlook.

ALSO for some reason it does not sync the subfolders I created online underneath Inbox on the Exchange server AND

When I tried to send a message from my laptop's Outlook, the message does not appear in OWA's Sent items (even when I pressed the send and received button multiple times (on both OWA and the Laptop's Outlook)


I just wondered, what is the best method for me to transfer ALL the emails on my Laptop's Outlook back onto the OWA Exchange Server AND also resolve the send items and subfolders problems.


Many many thanks in advance for this!