In my entry titled “How to backup your Microsoft Office 2007 Outlook in its entirety (Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7)” I described how to backup the Microsoft Outlook 2007 data file together with that part of the Windows registry that stores within it the email accounts from where Outlook retrieves emails or via which emails are sent out. Today I discuss how to use that backed up information to either recover a failed computer or to transfer the settings from one computer to another. The former may happen if the hard disk fails or as a result of a malware attack while the latter would apply if you are upgrading your computer or operating system.

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1. Restore the files you had previously backed up to their original location. If you followed my previous article, the location would be %USERPROFILE%\Documents if you’re using Windows 7 and %USERPROFILE%\My Documents for Windows XP.

If you were using an online backup solution, you could have had a process that backed up this directory multiple times a day thereby guaranteeing that not even one email was lost when disaster struck.

2. Delete the files created by Microsoft Outlook when you first ran it. As we did when backing up, we need to find out the default location where Microsoft Outlook places the pst database. The same steps you performed during the backup stage must be repeated:

1. With Outlook running, right click on the Personal Folders entry (1) and choose the option Properties for ‘Personal Folders’ from the short cut menu that comes up.
2. A dialog box titled Outlook Today – (Personal Folders) Properties comes up. Click on the Advanced… button (2).
3. This brings up yet another dialog box titled Personal Folders. The Filename: entry (3) depicts the location of where your Outlook data file currently resides.
4. Copy the directory location from the Filename: entry and paste it into Windows Explorer.
5. Click OK on all the dialog boxes you have just opened and shut down Outlook.
6. Delete the contents of this folder.

 3. Click on the Microsoft Outlook 2007 icon to run the program. Since the pst data file is no longer there, Outlook prompts you that it cannot find this file and asks that you select the location where this file can be found. Move to the directory you have just restored and select the appropriate database. Outlook will memorize the new location.

A  message box comes up to tell you that Outlook must be restarted. Press the OK button.

4. Run Outlook again and confirm that all your emails, contacts and calendar entries are present. Although everything should be there, the email account settings are missing. This is because these are not stored within the pst file but are held in the registry.

If you did not follow the article about how to backup this information, you will have to manually setup each email account. Search your mail provider’s website for information about how to go about it. If, on the other hand, you retained a backup of this chunk of the registry then read on.

 5. Close Microsoft Outlook.

 6. Restore the Registry entries by double clicking on the registry file found in the directory you restored earlier. You will be asked to confirm the operation (1). You need to choose the Yes button. A warning comes up (2) to tell you that mucking up with the registry is dangerous. This is because one can easily render a computer an electronic vegetable if one deletes, adds or modifies incorrect entries to the registry—check out the backup part of this work for more about the Windows registry. Press the Yes button for this dialog box. A third dialog box (3) will tell you that the entries have been successfully added.

7. The next time you run Outlook you will get a prompt for the password associated with each email account managed by this program. Type in the password. If you do not wish to have to enter the password every time you run Outlook, click the appropriate checkbox to save the password.

8. Confirm that everything is working as it did before.

End of part 2 – Conclusion

You do not appreciate something until that something is no longer there. Emails, contacts and appointments are three of the most important things in the electronic world we live in. A backup solution that is easy to setup and forget about while being equally easy to restore when the need arises is the ideal candidate to ensure that you do not ever lose one bit of data.

Your comments and opinions are welcome. Is there a program you would like to backup but do not know how to go about it? Did I miss something out in my article on how to backup and restore of Microsoft Outlook 2007? Leave a comment or email me on chribonn@gmail.com.

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1. The application or wizard allows you to set verification of a backup job – tick the verify check box
2. Enable logging features – make sure you know the log files location
3. The application allows you to encrypt backed up data with a password if your destination location is a remote storage host or removable media such as, pen drives – dual password entry text box
4. Enable job status features such as, completion reports – check for failures or warnings

If these options are not presented to you in the application wizard then go and look for them before you start the job. Although, the verification mechanism was more intended to verify data integrity when backing up to tape media, it is still a useful check for all kind of media.

Another important task that I recommend you to perform from time to time is a restore test operation. Select a previous backup set and perform a restore operation to an alternate location (if you restore to the original location, remember you would overwrite your recent files with older ones). After a test restore operation check that the restored files are not corrupted such as, opening a word document or spreadsheet and verify that the data is complete and accessible.

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To restore a file or folder follow these simple steps:

1. Open the Backup and Restore console – type backup in the search box Start/Search programs and files and click the Backup & Restore Icon
2. Click Restore My Files – assuming one or more backups have been done previously
3.  The Restore Files window shows the latest backup as default but you can click on the Choose A different Date to select an older backup
4. Click the Browse for Files button – click Browse for Folders button to restore a complete folder
5. Search for the file you wish to restore and click the Add File button – repeat for more files or folders (use the CTRL button to add multiple files)

    6.  Click the Next button
    7.  Specify the restore location
    8.  Click Restore – make sure when overwriting current files with older ones, that the older file is the one you want!

Finally, click Finish :)

To restore a file or folder you simply right-click the file or folder (in windows explorer) and select the Restore previous versions option.
If the Restore previous versions is not available then your file structure must have been changed. Also, note that the restore operation is not reversible!

From the Restore previous versions window select the date of the desired restore point. If no previous dates are available, the selected file or folder has not been modified.

You have three options. You can Open the file (Open button) and view its contents and save it to an alternate location, you can Copy the file (Copy button) to an alternate location or you can just restore the file by clicking the Restore button.

Remember, that if you cannot find previous copies of files, then you have system protection disabled for that drive. Also, shadow copies are unavailble for Offline files and system files that are used by the Windows 7.