confuser question, difinately NON BOATY

[ShipsWoofy]

My main system has just crashed, big time. Luckily I dual boot on my puter and am currently on my windows Me system.

I have been able to salvage all the files I need as back up, but here is my problem.

I have some information I need in an email that was in my outlook.pst on the XP system, I do not have outlook on this one, only crappy outlook express.

Does anyone know how I can read an outlook.pst file outside outlook, is it possible. It is not the end of the world, but it will really speed things up during the initial rebuild if I can get at the mail. I do not have an exchange server either.

I do not want to install outlook on this partition, I don't think I have the room anyhow.

heeelp. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[BrendanS]

I'm willing to be proved wrong, but I'm fairly certain it cannot easily be done. Reason being I was in a similar position a month or two back.

The pst file format is proprietory to MS, as a result, people cannot reverse engineer and use the format to import into other applications without MS getting a bit peeved with them. As a result, other mail readers like Thunderbird, rely on Outlook being installed on the same computer, in order to be able to import a pst file.... they don't do it directly, or require you to export the data in csv format or similar first.

and no one dares to make available a stand alone pst reader for similar reasons, though you may find a hackers version in some of the darker part of the internet, but make sure your firewall and antivirus are industrial strength before you go trawling in those parts of the internet! <g>

I came to the conclusion it was quicker and easier to install Outlook in it's most light weight form, than to battle through to an alternative solution

 

[ashanta]

Sorry woofy!

See what I mean Brendan, I haven't got a clue what you guy's are talking about!
I am always impressed by the technical know how of you guy's but can this be learn't. I use a PC at work and use it's applications but do you guys have training in the sytem & programme side of things? Is it a "Night school" thing that would help me as I am interested but appear to be at a dis advantage if you know what I mean? It's purely interest for my own benefit.

Once again Woofy, Sorry for taking advantage!

Regards.

peter

 

[Ships_Cat]

Perhaps try http://www.mailnavigator.com/press_release.html. I am told that it will convert .pst to OE although it does not say that on the site but does say can read .pst. Only about 1.5MB and am told that you get some free use before having to register it (again don't think it says that on the site so would have to try and see).

No guarantee, have never needed it myself (touch wood).

John

 

[BrendanS]

Yes, it most certainly be learnt. No technical training here at all for me. Just learnt by playing, though I have the advantage of having been at it for years, having had sinclair, bbc and amstrad compututers, and learning to program in basic on them, then later teaching myslelf to program Fortran on the university mainframe. I've also learnt lots by osmosis by working in the IT world. However, most of that is irrelevant to modern pc's

I just jump in the deep end, and try things out. The internet is a wonderful resource, you can find out an awful lot of information where people have had same or similar problems. For instance, if you see an error message, cut and paste it into google, and see what turns up. Someone out there has probably documented the error message, and explains what it means in plain(ish) english.

Feel free to ask questions here (stick them in the Website feedback forum, it helps keep the techie questions in one place)

 

[BrendanS]

John,

same problem as I mentioned earlier, pst files are protected by MS, so transfers require Outlook to be running. From the mail navigator website FAQ's

"The format of MS Outlook mail archives (*.pst) is protected by Microsoft. Therefore, in MailNavigator, *.pst files can be accessed only indirectly, with the help of Outlook-OLE. In effect, a search of messages in Outlook folders is achieved by Outlook's own resources.

To access a PST file, this file must be accessible from MS Outlook as a mail folder. It must be available for opening not only as an external file, but must be directly accessible in MS Outlook."

in other words, if Outlook is not running on the computer, mail navigator cannot access pst files.

 

[Ships_Cat]

Ok have now had a read of the site. Yes, it would seem that the people I referred to must have done the conversion with Outlook running.

Like you, I know of no other possible way (not that I am an expert but have had a few adventures with both .pst and OE files /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif).

John

 

[BrendanS]

It may be a long shot, but have you tried importing the pst file into outlook express. Microsoft say it can be done, though I've tried it, and it fails as it doesn't give me the option to point the import wizard at the correct file location, and others report the same problem, but it's worth a shot..File/Import/Messages/Outlook

 

[zephyrsailor]

email the pst file to someone and have them open it and email you the email you want....

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Unfortunately the file is too large really.

Thank you Brendan and John for your help, I found a few proggys on the interweb but quickly found these were missing the engine (Outlook).

I decided to be patient and return to the source, I have called my mate who sent the mail and he has reposted for me, which I was able to retrive online.

I am in two minds now to change my mail reader, I am considering using agent, which I currently use for news. Thing is, other than this, I actually like outlook and somehow own the full office XP suite.

I was hoping that Micronsoft would have a reader online or summit, I did not want to convert, just read a single email. ah well.

Busy night tonight, it was time for a rebuild, I have been nursing the system for around 6 months now, maybe it will be a top speed this time /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[paulskent]

I can give you an FTP location that you can upload the PST file to.

I can then open it for you and send you whatever you want from it. Let me know if you want to progress..

PK.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I am self taught so to speak. I work in electronics, which means, the people I work with have an interest too. Quite often on night shifts someone would arrive with their PC which was having problems and we used combined head scratching to find a fix.

I am too stuborn to pay someone, so I would try anything to get something working, reading internet forums, click on something to see what happens.

One thing that I say always helped me with PC work, was starting on an early 0286 with DOS 2 I think. I had a whopping 30MB hard disk which had to be partitioned as DOS would not see it as it was TOO big. Having to build a system by hand, no windows to help you out gets you into the background services that people generally take for granted now. This helps when Windows falls over and amazes friends when you start working with a black screen and type out strings of commands etc.

It can be learnt. I would say, it takes the bottle to break something by fiddling and then having to go in and fix it. Small steps, then everything kind of comes together.

I am teaching myself html, I have ideas that I like for my website and if I can't work out how to do something, I find a site that does and compare their code with mine, surprisingly it is easier than it looks. You can quickly read through the code and see plain english commands of what the HTML is doing.

Mastering flash is my next goal, I have a first attempt on the intro to my site, but compared to the average 6 year olds efforts it is quite pathetic!

 

[LittleShip]

Errr !! whats this all about then. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[tworeefs]

As a matter of interest, how big was your .pst file?

 

[BrendanS]

Stonehenge, to the abacus, and beyond

 

[poter]

Woof/Brendan

I have exported a pst file (fairly large one) to excel, and cut down the data file, ie taking out all the rubbish data headings for- address 2, 3, telex etc etc. & then imported it into outlook on my old laptop.

Can this be done???
At the very least you have a file that you can play with and can usually be imported/used by most MS progs.


poter

 

[BrendanS]

Yes, you can do that BUT you need to have Outlook there and running to do the export. Woofy doesn't have Outlook, just a pst file

 

[ShipsWoofy]

It was 84MB. It is now 22Mb after cleaning and compacting. It would prolly rar quite small.

I have gone past what I needed information for, going to be looking for a new mail client now.

Thank you everyone.

 

[gtmoore]

Forte Agent

I use Agent for mail - it's all I know and I struggle a bit when using a different mail reader such as Outlook.

It's downside - and it's a big one, is that it still only supports a single POP server for incoming mail. Version 2 point something is supposed to remedy this but not sure when this will be available.