Move Outlook .pst files from old XP computer to new Vista computer

Let's start by saying I'm not a techie, and I work out of my home, so please
explain things SIMPLY to me, because I've got no one to ask. I have been
working for two Days to figure out how to move my outlook mail files,
contacts and calendar from my old XP, Office 2003 computer to my new Vista,
Office 2007 computer . The Microsoft help page says to backup your
outlook.pst files to an external device, and then use Explorer to move them
to drive:\Documents and settings\<user>\Local
Settings\application\Microsoft\Outlook folder. However when I used the
backup wizard to put the files on my external hard drive, it would not let me
open the Outlook folder on my XP computer, so I backed up the whole Outlook
folder. But I can't open my backup copy to get just the .pst file to move
it to the Outook folder on my Vista computer. So I figure I need to restore
the old Outlook folder onto my external drive and plug it into my new Visa
computer so I can open the folder on my new computer, and move just the .pst
file to the Outlook folder on the new Vista computer. Is this a good
assumption or is there a better way? Thank you for any help you can give me.

What "backup Wizard" did you use?
Microsoft's instructions on this process are not correct. You should not
move your data file to Outlook's default folder.
All you need to do is make a copy of your Outlook data file using Windows
Explorer (avoid using anything process with the word "Wizard"), place that
file on your new hard drive in any location but Outlook's default folder
(like where you store your other data), then open the file in your new
Outlook installation using the File > Open > Outlook data file command.
Take a look at these pages for info on Outlook data backup or transfer:

Thankyou, I will try it and let you know how it goes. With the time I've
spent on this, I could have manually rebuilt my calendar, 4 contact folders,
and copied my correspondence off into text files!

Unfortunately, Microsoft has made migrating Outlook data a near
impossibility. Not only do its "Wizards" not work, the correct procedure is
so counterintuitive that no one guesses it one the first ten tries.

Thankyou Russ, I was able to move almost all of my Outlook information to my
new computer with the help of the articles you recommended. Unfortunately,
in the transfer of my contacts, my 4 contact folders for 4 different
organizations, were all combined into 1, which is sort of a mess. Outlook
did set up separate distribution lists for me for the four contact folders,
bless its heart. It also deleted some contacts with no seeming methodology.
I thought it didn't like that I knew three Julies and two Maureens (different
last names) because it only transfered one, but it kept all 6 Dons that I
know. Go figure. Luckily my old Xp/2003 computer is dying, but not dead
yet, and I should be able to go through and find the people that Outlook
kicked out. I'm disappointed that when you click the address book icon on
the tool bar to look for someone Outlook hasn't found, it still orders your
Contacts in First name sequence. Why even keep the freakin button?

I do have one more problem though: I renamed the Personal folder on my new
computer, 'newmsgs.pst', so that I would be able to differentiate the
e-mails I received during the transition period. I did not realize at first
that Outlook set up a separate "Personal Folders" for the old file and the
new file, because the duplicate fell beneath my view window. I thought I'd
have to open each folder as Outlook data to view it. I dragged and dropped
the new messages into my 'old' inbox, and deleted newmsgs.pst. Now I get a
message everytime I open Outlook that it can't find this file. I can live
with this, although I hate having this type of Snafu on a brand new computer.
Is there a way tell Outlook to stop looking for newmsgs.pst?

Thanks again for any help you can give me. I really appreciate it.

Did the last option work? I am faced with the same problem. I transferred all
files from old computer with XP to new Computer with Vista using Easy
Transfer Wizard and a crossove cable. Everything works fine except OUTLOOK

Easy transfer cause problems for outlook
Use the simple copy process as previously outlined.
Depending what is meant by Outlook not working, you may need to create a new
outlook Profile and add the old data files

Darwin,
I'm not sure where you are at, but this is an explanation I made for a
friend with a new computer from my notes when I did the migration, and they
worked for him.
Like I said, I'm not a Techie, so I might not explain everything quite right.

Migrating Outlook Files to a new computer:

To get to your Outlook files in Explorer you have to find the box to
‘include hidden files’ (in XP I think it was ‘show’). I believe it is in the
regular View menu in Explorer in XP.
To view hidden folders in Explorer on your Vista computer
Tools/folder options/View/display hidden files

If you search for your Outlook files, search for *.pst and you will not
find them unless you include hidden files. Everything (mail, contacts,
calendar) was in one .pst file on both computers. If you use shared Outlook
files, I think you also need to find *.pab files, and I’m not sure what you
do with them.
If I remember right, the .pst files are in the Outlook Program folder in
both XP and Vista, however, the folder path to them is different. Unless
you’ve created your own file, I’m pretty sure it is called outlook.pst in
both XP and Vista.
You need to get your *.pst folder from your old computer into your
Personel Folder on the new computer , and the default for Personal Folders
is Outlook.pst on your new Vista computer.
The path in Vista where it stores the outlook file is:
Your computer name\Users\your user name\my outlook\outlook.pst
If you can avoid it, do not set up e-mail on your new computer until you
have done this, because you will lose all of that when you replace it with
the folder from your old computer. You want the outlook file to stay empty,
and if you set it up, it will start receiving e-mails. Since I set up and
received e-mails on my new computer right away, I created newoutlook.pst on
my Vista computer and moved my outlook files from my old computer into it.
I remember that I had to tell Outlook to open this file as my personal
folders, and I don’t remember how I did that. It may have just come up the
first time I opened Outlook after I created the new file, and Outlook was
confused because it only expected to find one *.pst file. So it asked me the
name of my Personal Folder file.
I did have a problem in that my new Personal Folder showed up all the way at
the bottom of the list of folders in Outlook, and actually went to a second
page. So I did a lot of farting around because I didn’t think it was
excepting my new file, when all that happened was I couldn’t see it!
Later I was able to drop and drag the mail that had arrived in the Vista
Personal Folders into my personal folder just in Outlook. However, if you
have calendar or contacts to merge, I’m not sure how that would work.
There was a lot of discussion on the forum, and discrepancies in articles on
how to physically move the *.pst files. I believe neither backup/restore nor
import/export will take all of the hidden files you need with them. I know I
just dropped and dragged the outlook.pst file to a flash drive in Explorer on
my old computer, and then I think I did a SAVE AS on the new computer.
Your computer name\Users\your user name\my outlook\outlook.pst
Replace outlook.pst with the name that you saved the file as on your Vista
computer. Russ Valentine does address this in his posts to me using the
Outlook installation using the command.
File > Open > Outlook data file

I used the three web sites that Russ recommended to come up with this
procedure.

I hope it helps, and I'm not giving you any bad advice. I have not had any
problems with Outlook on my Vista computer.

Start Outlook and set up your email account.

Close Outlook

Copy the .pst file

Go to C:\Users\REPLACE WITH YOUR ACCOUNT
NAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\

Paste the .pst file here

Because it doesn't necessarily, IF you are lucky. The probability of it
doing so is quite high however...

Outlook 2000 is not compatible with Vista
Only outlook 2003 onwards is fully compatible with vista

[hunterabq]

I too am not a techie, but I have tried copying .pst and then opening, "Open" via menu, etc. Finally got folders, but cannot respond to e-mail or create address book as "wab.dll" cannot be found.

Microsoft says to reinstall outlook express?!?!?! I am using Outllook 2000, and moving it over from a XP to Vista machine. But no address book, signature, etc.

Copied backup, moved it over and renamed, then reopened. All I got was other copy of folders.

How to get address book back?

Read the following concerning your issue

http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/vista.htm

Apart from that issue as described above Outlook 2000 in Office 2000 will work on
Vista as shown in the below MS KB. Outlook stand alone and not in the Office suite
is another story and refer to the post by DL in this thread.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932087/en-us