After doing a backup, then a reinstall of a client's Windows XP computer I forgot to create a .pst of their mail from outlook 2003. I have all the data from the old installation but I don't know where Outlook 2003 stores its data.
Where abouts can I find this data?
c:\documents and settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\
by default for PSTs
Outlook 2003 saves its data in so called "Personal Folder Files" .pst, which is an acryonym for "Personal Storage Table."
The .pst personal folder file is stored in a folder of your Windows profile. If you don't change the path manually, the standard path on a Windows XP installation is
C:\Documents and Settings\PROFILE_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\
One important advice: if the user had "auto archive" enabled, there could be another (or more) .pst in your backup: archive.pst. The file contains objects which were exported in order to keep the main .pst file from growing too large. Search for all *.pst files.
If the data hadn't been backed up, the default file for the Outlook account files won't be .PST, but .OST. Only backups and archives will have the .PST file extension.
