Hi... I recenlty had to reformat the hardrive. So I exported the Inbox
and Contacts and Sent folders to .pst files and renamed them
accordingly eg Inbox BACKUP.pst (not really knowing what I was doing).
I put them in My Documents and burned them onto disk.
Now I have them back in my document and I have tried to import them
back into Outlook.
I get a message that it is not a Personal Folder file. What have I
done wrong. They are .pst files!

Have you tried to start Outlook, then File | Open, Outlook data file and
find the file you want?


Judy Gleeson [MVP Outlook]
Acorn Training and Consulting
www.acorntraining.com.au

Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!


"hevfev" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi... I recenlty had to reformat the hardrive. So I exported the Inbox
and Contacts and Sent folders to .pst files and renamed them
accordingly eg Inbox BACKUP.pst (not really knowing what I was doing).
I put them in My Documents and burned them onto disk.
Now I have them back in my document and I have tried to import them
back into Outlook.
I get a message that it is not a Personal Folder file. What have I
done wrong. They are .pst files!

Yes I have tried that and it says it is not a personal folder file

hevfev wrote:

Yes I have tried that and it says it is not a personal folder file

Then you damaged it in the process you used (perhaps by copying the exported
PST without closing Outlook) and without a commercial tool, it's
unrecoverable.
--
Brian Tillman

Never import PST files.
Open them.
Remove the read only attribute it acquired from being on a CD before you do.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"hevfev" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi... I recenlty had to reformat the hardrive. So I exported the Inbox
and Contacts and Sent folders to .pst files and renamed them
accordingly eg Inbox BACKUP.pst (not really knowing what I was doing).
I put them in My Documents and burned them onto disk.
Now I have them back in my document and I have tried to import them
back into Outlook.
I get a message that it is not a Personal Folder file. What have I
done wrong. They are .pst files!

I have checked the read only attribute and it is not ticked.
How do I open them?
Where from?

Thanks

Sounds like you corrupted the file when you created it. That happens if you
export to create the file.
State how you created and transferred this file.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"hevfev" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have checked the read only attribute and it is not ticked.
How do I open them?
Where from?

Thanks

I think I went:

FileExportExport to a filePersonal foler File.pst then selected the
Inbox or contacts Folder or the Sent Folder and tick included sub
folders nextBrowsethen save to My Documents with a new name instead
of BACKUP.pst.... eg I would change the name to Contacts BACKUP.pst or
Inbox BACKUP.pst... (save as type... .PST file) click OK and Finish

The files are there as .pst files.... It is really important that I get
the contact address at least. PLEASE HELP ME!!!!! will check back in
the morning...

hevfev wrote:

I think I went:

FileExportExport to a filePersonal foler File.pst then selected
the Inbox or contacts Folder or the Sent Folder and tick included sub
folders nextBrowsethen save to My Documents with a new name instead
of BACKUP.pst.... eg I would change the name to Contacts BACKUP.pst
or Inbox BACKUP.pst... (save as type... .PST file) click OK and
Finish

Never export to a PST. Just copy the original PST with Outlook closed.

After you created this PST, did you close Outlook before burning it to the
CD? Also, some CD burning software does not sem to handle PSTs very well.
Usually, once someone gets the "not a Personal Folders file" message, the
PST is irreparable, at least with Microsoft-supplied tools.
--
Brian Tillman