OL2000: (CW) How to Recover Offline Folder Information

This article describes how to copy Offline Folder information to a personal folder.

If you want to access information in your Offline folders (.ost) from a new Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox, you must complete the following steps:

• Set prompt to work offline
• Synchronize all folders
• Copy contents of .ost to a new Personal folder

Once the information has been copied, you can safely remove the .ost from your computer, and set up a new Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox. Copy the information from the Personal Folder to the Exchange Server Mailbox.

NOTE: If the old Exchange Server Mailbox is inaccessible for any reason, skip the following procedures and see the article listed in the References section of this article.

Set Prompt to Work Offline

To set prompt to work offline, follow these steps:

1. On the Windows Start menu, point to Settings, and then click control Panel
2. Click to open the Mail icon.
3. Click to select Microsoft Exchange Server and then click properties.
4. On the General tab, click "Manually control connection state", and then click "Choose the connection type when starting." Click Apply, OK, and then OK again.

Outlook will now prompt you to work online or offline.

Synchronize All Folders

To synchronize all folders, follow these steps:

1. Start Outlook and when you are prompted, click Work Online.
2. On the Tools menu, point to Synchronize, and click All Folders.
3. On the File menu, click Exit and Log off.

Copy Contents of .ost to a New Personal Folder

To copy the contents of the .ost file to a new personal folder, follow these steps:

1. Start Outlook. When you are prompted, click Work Offline.
2. On the Tools menu, click Services.
3. Click Add and click to select Personal Folders. Click OK.
4. Type a name for the folder. Click to select a folder location, and then click Open. To accept the defaults, click OK, and click OK again to close.
5. With the right mouse button, drag the Mailbox to your new Personal folder and click Copy.

The contents of your .ost file are now in the new Personal folder. This information can be copied to the new Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox after you reconnect to the server.

For additional information on recovering an OST file, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: