WARNING TO HACKERS; this recovery method is for personal use only to recover from a Windows System Crash needing to re-install, any other intention is a Crime both Domestically and Internationally... Companies’ using this recovery method to gain control or an advantage through corporate spying is also a Crime punishable for up to 20 years in jail!
Let me tell you a story, Arson or theft or stealing personal information is a Crime; whether it on my home or on my Laptop!
One big PROBLEM MSFT has caused is eliminating hotmail support with Outlook... In addition, why we cannot add them as .PST files in our Outlook email in the first place if there our emails…
Not that it ever was; I do not fell that our privacy is protected using the new online outlook email setup except to catch spammers; has outlook connector become useless?
We will have to check it out "AGAIN"
Now, back to recovering your/my System without the need for ransom ware;
I find myself once again copying the Outlook folder again after re-installing the system yet again for the fifth time in five years; it getting old! This time, we have a different method…
Simply copying the directory structure does not replace the old hotmail accounts in the Folders; WHY NOT, all that business mail GONE. No, it still their... We will figure that out later.
For Starters, after a clean install: Searching my index crashed my computer; need to fix that first.
Restarted in safe mode; I do this operation in safe mode as it works ten X faster!
Step one; on your desktop, make a folder named PSTREVIEW
Step two, search ".PST" & ".NK2" files in your user account folders on the crashed drive", if more than one appears in different user ID, copy each user ID in a separate folder in the PSTREVIEW and name each USER ID separately… “Match or copy the User ID exactly, do not mix up or copy them all to one folder”
Step three: MS-Office already installed; whichever version you are using - it will ask you to setup an Email Account when you open outlook, (please click NO HERE)
* If you already set up an account, go to the folder and rename all the .PST files as .NIS
Then open Outlook, as it does not find any accounts, it will ask you where the file is, point it to the desktop folder you where you copied and named the PSTREVIEW folder too. You should try each file one by one till you see the latest emails you recognize. Keep in mind, after you make the file active, Outlook closes briefly; simply restart it to see the emails to see if it is your last used folder. “Hurray”,
* If your file is older than 2 months that you copied to the PSTREVIEW Folder, you can be sure that .PST files we/you am looking for to recover are too old to considerer reviewing as a recovery method here. Opening each file will enable us/me to understand what I need to keep or discard. If their old; I renamed them .BAK or .OLD "the reason is, if we/you run any .PST programs later to fix the .PST file system, .PST searches all files; they will not search and waste your time try to fix an old .PST file saving literally hours of your time.
Then Copy the last ".PST" you will use and rename it "OUTLOOK.PST" "Why do this?" as we/you just re-installed outlook, if there is an outlook .PST file now, it is useless for our purpose, but not useless as the registry is already setup properly to use this new OUTLOOK.PST file! "The clean install is what is important to remember here! Hence, renaming our .PST file outlook will restore the last good outlook email system in a clean operating system and you will be up and running...
(Next is to check the contacts automated file while editing messages which uses the ".Nk2")
To get back the automated indexes while typing the email address or names in the send to; do the following;
How to do it easily; (be sure to do while Outlook was not running for that user)
http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/49-restore-nk2-file-to-show-email-addresses-in-autocomplete-in-outlookGo to the C:\Users\your user account ID\AppData\Roaming\Misrosoft\Outlook\
I then Ren *.NK2 file to *.Old
Ren MYUSERID.NK2 to MYUSER.OLD
Go to the "PSTREVIEW folder on your desktop" * Important; only copy the "YOURUSEID.Nk2" files of your user ID only to the; %APPDATA%\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook\
The copied User ID;
Copy MYUSERID.NK2 to OUTLOOK.NK2 (or whatever your user ID is)
* We name it outlook because outlook is the current profile name, you can change it later when you create your old profile, and you would do this if you have old backups that you need to work with for that profile!
Go back to the PSTREVIEW Outlook folder and copy (youruserID.NK2 to outlook.NK2) or drag and drop the file using explorer.
C:\Users\your user account ID\AppData\Roaming\Misrosoft\Outlook\myuserid.nk2
* Only copy this file to the roaming folder; then rename the copied file to the current user id outlook.NK2
I then reopened Outlook, which recreated the automated file structure: "thank you MSFT for this feature"
You can then sent a message from the users email account, and then tried another one, to verify the email address saved. The “Auto-complete” remembered the recipients
Other files to consider copying and renaming;
***** I only have done the .NK2 file
***** I am not aware yet what the .SRS file is
Profilename.FAV
Profilename.NK2
Profilename.srs
***** We will check the contacts next;
I do not use the calendar in Outlook; No reference will be provided.
Well after we rebuild this time, we need to point the email system to a directory on the main drive. This will eliminate these long steps next time that takes about several hours especially, if we have been using this email system for 2-3 years or longer as many people use more than profile. One profile might be for personal while another one for business.
WARNING USING THIS NEXT FEATURE: There is a MSFT OUTLOOK BUG, when you restore your computer to an earlier time, it restores the old path in Outlook too; I hav ereported this bug to MSFT already
You will have to do over the above, re-add your user email accounts, AGAIN!
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883401?wa=wsignin1.0Example; C:\Mail\Outlook\Outlook.pst or whatever profile you use. this will stop the ransom ware nonsense...
References;
Backup program for 2002 and 2003
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/using-the-microsoft-outlook-personal-folders-backup-tool-HA001087532.aspxReset Commands: “DO NOT USE ON NEW INSTALLS”
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/commandlineswitches.htmhttp://www.msoutlook.info/question/74*****
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/email/understanding-outlooks-autocomplete-cache-nk2/
