beemer wrote:

In Outlook 2007 I want to remove around 3500 of my 4000 contacts but
to have them archived not just deleted. What is the best method to
do this so that in future I could access them again in Outlook?

Create a new PST, a Contacts folder in that PST, then move the unwanted
contacts to that folder. If you already have an Archive PST, you can use
that instead.
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]