Sounds like you saved your archive.pst and not the active .pst file. Contacts are never archived which is the dead giveaway here. How old are your mail items in this .pst file? Did you copy your active .pst file (hidden file) or just the .pst file that you saw using Windows Explorer? Do you still have access to the hard drive with your old data on it or is this the one you formatted?

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Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact.

After furious head scratching, JB77 asked:

| Some more detail: outlook 2003, xp home edition, attached the .pst
| file via "file/open/outlook data file" commands
|
| "JB77" wrote:
|
|| Hi
|| pc crashed and had to format and reinstall XP. Had a copy of the old
|| .PST mail folders. Have connected these again but cant find contacts
|| anymore. Are these lost permamently or is there a way to find them
|| again in this file?