I use Macrium for my backups, so I have that covered. Now, I'm wondering if I did the right thing, since I'm now having the Outlook error I just posted. Also, if I cannot delete the "old" or "other" documnts folder, what is the point of creating the partition and moving all of the data so that my system images would me smaller?
I'm befuddled!
Ouch! Once you have a program installed and running the only time you would move or actually backup program files and mail would be in prep for later reinstalling the same program fresh.
If you moved and not simply copied the file you may have to perform a full reinstall in order to see everything working if moving the file back fails to see results. Some files are directly tied by the system registry where you have to follow a set of steps when going to make backups in order to keep the present installation running.
One 9/5/2009 blog called "Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 Backup" is what you will want to look over for this at Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 Backup
Apparently the layout and options seen in the 2010 beta are very close to what is seen in Office 2007.
Since we missed each other's posts the OS primary here always see the original installation files and folders left intact. Creating the image of the drive preserves everything onto in your case the D partition you made there when backing up the C primary.
The idea of moving any files or folders from C over to D or the other partition you made isn't even necesssary since the image holds all of that. This is why I suggested using the Windows Easy Transfer or simply copy and paste various folders individually for ready access while still having the images when needing a full restoration.
I thought I just had to move the Outlook.pst file. What other files does Outlook use? How can I fix this? (It seems to be just email accounts that are affected, so there must be something specific to those. My SMS Officer account is working fine.) What a nightmare!
And what about all the other Office programs that depend upon the c:\users\username\ file structure? Are they going to be messed up as well?
What is the cleanest way to fix this?
As far as email contacts you may have to remove all of the ones effected and simply readd each one back in to see a new pst file made up. As far as the other office wares that will depend on whether simply moving the files back to each one's original location will prevent the need to redo everything all over.
I doubt using a restore point can do much for you on this since the registry portion is as it should be. All you can do now is try restoring each file to it's original location and see which programs will need to be repaired or reinstalled.
This is one reason I now simply image a drive since I will continue to add new programs at time being evaluated or to remain on indefinitely. If something does go bad like any while not likely here viral infection trashes the present installation I can restore the latest made after cleaning off the drive if needed.
For backing up emails and contact info as if you were moving into a new system for example each program typically will have some guide for that whether being an MS page or someone's blog site where you have to follow the steps closely for the best results.
I hesitate to recommend this method since I'm sure there must be a better way, perhaps by importing your old data files into Outlook, but anyway, when I encountered similar problems after moving the documents and other data folders, I simply deleted my email accounts and recreated them over again from scratch as if I was setting Outlook up for the first time, and let Outlook create new data files for them, iirc, and the result was I had my email up and running again within a few minutes. My original Outlook.pst file still worked fine when I pointed Outlook (2010) to it in File, account settings, data files, and set it as the default data file, so I didn't lose any contacts, thankfully. Again, I'm sure there must be a better more correct way to get Outlook working again but this did work for me.
A side benefit was that some errors I had been getting occasionally in Outlook seems to have been permanently fixed by recreating my accounts from scratch in Outlook 2010. Now everything in Outlook is working very fast and smoothly for me, i.e., no more errors when receiving and sending email.
Hope that helps.
(Also, on a related topic that may not apply to the OP but might be useful for others, for my Live/hotmail email accounts, I had been using the Outlook Connector to access my Live email accounts but I had frequently had errors with that, especially with Outlook 2010, so I decided to try uninstalling the Connector and just setting up the @live.com accounts just like any other web based pop email accounts and I have so far found that to be working better for me than using the Connector add in ever did.
Just in case anyone wants to try that, the settings that worked were:
Incoming mail server is pop3.live.com port 995 (use SSL encryption)
Outgoing mail server is smtp.live.com port 25 (set outgoing encryption to Auto)
The ports and encryption options are under More Settings… under the Advanced Tab. Also in the more settings dialog, under outgoing server tab, set it to use same settings as incoming server. The user name is your live/hotmail address.)
Last edited by harpua; 10 May 2010 at 00:23.
Harpua, thanks for your commens. I would like to know if it is even proper to have the outlook.pst file in the documents directory. Another poster told me that I should put it back in its default location, then use the MS backup utility for Outlook to copy a backup to the data storage location for backup.
What do you think? I'm thinking about just restoring my system to where it was before I did all this, then properly moving Outlook.pst to its "proper" location. The question is whether or not I will have this problem with other Office programs, or is it just Outlook that is problematic with moving the data files?
And you're right, I could possibly delete and re-create the email accounts, I just don't know if I should try and keep the Outlook.pst file separate anymore, or if I should just keep it in the default directory,,,
I will await your reply. Thanks!
You're thinking along the same lines there since with the origimal files intact and returned to the program installed locations a fresh contact list always worked with OE in XP and WMail in Vista as well as in the new Outlook.
With a clean install of each program for the others you would end up seeing the same thing where each one would also need a fresh record with the new entries made. First however you should go back over the steps you took for each other program to make sure you move the files back to the correct locations for each one.
I thought about that and found it kind of strange that 2010 wanted to put those files in the Documents folder, but I ended up deciding that I preferred to have those files located in Documents for ease of backing up (since they'll get backed up automatically every time I back up my data files), so that's where I left them and, as I said above, Outlook is now working great for me. But as a practical matter, I don't think it matters where the files are located as long as Outlook is pointed to where they are.
I have not yet experienced any other issues with other Office apps caused by moving the data files but I've only used Onenote and Word so far since moving my data files. But I don't see any reason why there would be any problems.
A couple of other non Office programs experienced some brief disorientation caused by moving the data files but they quickly recovered and mostly fixed themselves or simply needed to be pointed in the right direction. Outlook was the only app that gave me a real headache.
In sum, I'm glad I moved the data files as it has really made it a lot quicker and easier for me to back my stuff up and it will facilitate my migrating to an SSD for my C drive eventually.
Thanks Night Hawk and Harpua!
I'm going to restore my system for now, and then move the data files to the data partition by exporting or following whatever instructions MS has. But thanks for the input and confirmation of my path, it was very helpful from you both, and much appreciated!
Quote