Not entirely sure what I need to do, but I basically want to play around with an XP installation that has some very valuable data on it. If I bork it, I need to be able to restore it to exactly how it was before I started messing about. Will I need something like Norton Ghost? *edit - Should say I have an external HDD I plan to use for the backup.

Secondly, the same XP installation is running Outlook 2000 SR-1 (as part of Office 2000), and its crapping out whilst trying to do anything. After a lot of head scratching I noticed the PST file was 2gb - the limit for this version of Outlook. I was planning on installing Office 2007, which should solve that problem (upwards of 2003 has a theoretical limit of 20gb) - but will it simply upgrade the current installation or run independantly? An ideal situation would be that it upgrades so I dont need to mess about moving files and configs around.

Ta in advance.

once a pst file has corruipted, its gone and you will never get it back.

cant you boot with a bartPE disk, ghost to the external, then start playing?

Matt

Im not sure its corrupted, I only had 15 mins or so with the machine, should have some more time in a week-ish.

Id recommend Acronis for the imaging. You can do it from a boot CD and write the image to the USB HDD.

As for Office, it installs as separate entities.

Oh and Outlook wont automatically upgrade the PST to the latest version either (which is a right bastard).
You have to create a new PST, open the old PST and then manually copy all of the items from the old to the new.
There are migration tools out there if you really cba to do it manually.

Cheers Nimrod, does this seem to be what Im looking for?

Never really bothered with Outlook, so Im a little in the dark.

cant some other mail clients import from outlook ? like Thunderbird, Foxmail or the like ? so it just a matter of saving ?

Acronis is good, the latest version will convert a tib to a vhd too - theres a 15day trial you can get, that and virtualpc would make it nice & easy if it isnt XP oem.

Keep psts under 2gb tbh - there are repair tools available if you ahve a google. My rule of thumb is 1.5gb max, even with the newer versions of outlook it makes life simpler.

Sorting this properly may lead to some formal training in IT, or a least being introduced to some people, so Id like to be safe.

Ill try Acronis first, but for the PST file Ive found this : http://www.brothersoft.com/pst-conversion-tool-157521.html Any good? Will be going from Outlook 2000 to Outlook 2007.

Reducing the filesize is out of the question Im afraid.

Acronis is one of the very few utilities I have coughed up money for, cant have a better recommendation than that.

Acronis its the nuts - As said above well worth paying for!

I thought there were PST repair tools within the outlook Program Files folder.  Ive had to repair one before, it really doesnt matter how well sized you keep them, I find they are allways at risk of corruption.   Thats why I like to involve some form of mail server, whether it be Exchange or a mail server that keeps a copy for so long.

drive:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\LocaleID\scanpst.exe

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/outlook/HA010563001033.aspx

Acronis is simply the business.  It takes no time at all to image a desktop.

scanpst comes with office, but use ontrack powercontrols.

All you need to do is virtualise the machine - use vmware converter to convert it into a vmware desktop image. Then you can do what you want.

I would, but the machine is slow as hell, not sure if it could handle VMWare with only 512meg - it struggles on the desktop alone.

convert it on to an external USB and run it on a faster computer

Okay, Ill take an image and run it on my comp then. Sure Ill be back with more questions.