Restoring data to Outlook?

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Tomorrow I'm going to visit a customer that has a problem with Outlook, apparently all of their calendar and contacts have disappeared.

The last time that I even looked at Outlook was probably in 2002, so I'm really rusty.

As far as I know they don't have a .pst backup of the account.

If I recall correctly does outlook store a local copy of the data somewhere? Or maybe it has somehow created a new profile for itself?

I think that the site is using Exchange 2000, it is unlikely to be 2003.

I can't even check this at work as we have a Notes server.

Boy am I gona look good tomorrow when I ain't got a clue what I'm looking for!

Note to self: when someone asks what you have on tomorrow ALWAYS say that you're busy!

 

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Certainly where I work, the user mailbox is stored on the Exchange server. If the user has a laptop (for remote and mobile working) then a copy of the mailbox is synchronised to the local hard disk. From memory, it has the .ost extension.

It may be that there are issues with the Outlook profile for the user, and the Mailbox is still on the Exchange server. Issues with the Outlook profiler can make it look as though the Outlook Data files (the .pst files) and address book/contacts have disappeared, but that may not be the case.

 

I am really no expert in the outlook application, however with the scenario I would check a few things.

1. Check to make sure that the view in the contacts and calendar hasn't been altered. Sometimes from experience people hit a combination of keys and all of a sudden the view is in different mode.

2. The default location for outlook(2003) C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook (guys correct me please if I am wrong.)

3. I would check the auto archive option to see if its enabled, maybe somehow the contacts and calendar got archived. Again if archived I think it would go into the above location unless the path was changed.

Anyways good luck Simon.


Edit: GiddyG made a good point about profile.

 

Only if you have a Exchange server.....

Otherwise it's C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

You can search for it by using *.pst
Remember it's a system folder show you will need to show hidden files & folders & unhide protected operating system files.

You can use the Outlook pst file repair tool on the file it's called Scanpst.exe

Chances are the profile is corrupt, rename the pst file oldpst.pst. Then by default if you restart outlook it will create a new default pst file. Use the file & import function in Outlook to import the old pst file after fixing it with scanpst.exe. You can rebuild the user's data like this, also this works with Ofline cached mode OST files.

 

Thanks for the replies so far guy's. It gives me some stuff to look for.

 

These people were talking about icons, but still it may be worth a look to see if something has been disable.

 

and I found this for the contacts.

 

the correct path is C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook