Thanks Russ: In fact in was trying to follow the instructions suppiled with
the Back-up tool: There is a paragraph that says:

"If you want to recover your entire .pst file, quit Outlook.... rename you
damaged file ... make a copy of your backup .pst file and give that copy the
name of the original .pst file. This file needs to be in the same directory
as the original. That is essentially what I did after reloading OFFICE. "

The exception was that I got the error message concerning the lack of a back
up file and so I pasted this into the same location.

I'll try to find the thread on migrating office data. And I'll try to find
out more about Outlook profiles: but clearly I am not an expert at all this.
I really want to know how to revert to a 'virgin' Outlook and then import my
Outlook file which will then become the only one on the system with the
relevant "default"

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

You have used every known technique for corrupting your profile. You might
want to read the Help files or instructions we have posted here for the
correct way to migrate Outlook data. Never just paste a PST file into the
default location. Never just rename a PST file.
Create a new Outlook profile. Just open the PST you want to use in that
profile and set it to be your default, then restart Outlook and close the
PST file that Outlook created when you made the new profile.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Steve" wrote in message
...
Here is my problem: I had to do a complete system restore (windows XP) but
before doing so I created a backup copy of Outlook using the back-up tool.
Since then I have dug my self into a bigger and bigger hole. I could not
find
a way of restoring this file to Outlook 2003 without creating multiple
files.
I even reloaded OFFICE (in the hope that all history would be lost) then I
pasted my Outlook.pst file into the Outlook folder (local
settings/application data/microsoft/outlook) before starting outlook. I
then
received a message saying that 'could not find Outlook backup' so I quit
and
renamed a copy of my Outlook.pst as backup and pasted this into the folder
as
well. Now I have 3 sets of personal identical folders: the main one and
two
more. When I want to send an e-mail it seems that I have two "contact"
folders and I get an error message saying that the first one has been
moved
or deleted (I can open the second one OK). How can I get rid of the extra
personal folders and revert to just one contacts folder?

Now I have