Create a Backup Copy of Contacts in Outlook 2003 and Then Import Them into Outlook

Many people have loads and loads on personal contacts in their Outlook email contacts folder and if they are moving to a new computer these contacts won’t be stored on the new machine. So they need to make a backup of these and import them into the Outlook on their new machine. If you follow the below steps you can easily save your personal contacts on a CD/DVD/USB drive and then import them back into Outlook on your new machine. This will save you hours of re-entering your contacts into the list.

To back up the Contacts folder, you need to export the folder to a file in Personal Folders file (.pst) (Personal Folders file (.pst): Data file that stores your messages and other items on your computer. You can assign a .pst file to be the default delivery location for e-mail messages. You can use a .pst to organize and back up items for safekeeping).

1. On the File menu, click Import and Export.
2. Click Export to a file, and then click Next.
3. In the Create a file of type list, click Personal Folder File (.pst), and then click Next.
4. In the Select a folder to export from list, click Contacts.
5. If you have subfolders below the Contacts folder that you want to include, select the Include subfolders check box.
6. Click Next.
7. Click Browse, choose a location for the file, such as My Documents, and then type a name for your backup file, such as ContactsBackup.pst.
8. Click OK.
9. Click Finish.
10. In the Name box, type My Contacts Backup.
11. Type the encryption and password settings if you need them, and then click OK

If you follow these simple steps in no time you will have a file that you can put on your CD/DVD/USB drive and hold onto until you get to your new machine and then you can simply import this file back into your Outlook. Once imported back into Outlook it will look identical to the way you had it before in your Outlook on your old machine. I know this is all explained in a juvenile way but most people who will need this tutorial don’t know much about Outlook and need it explained simply so they can follow along. Once you have the exported contacts then follow these next steps to import the list on another computer.

1. On the File menu, click Import and Export.
2. Click Import form another program or file, and then click Next.
3. In the Select file type to import from list, click Personal Folder File (.pst), and then click Next.
4. In the Select a file to import list, click find your file.
5. In the options choose the option you would like (replace, allow, or do not import duplicates)
6. Click Next.
7. Click Finish and it will import the .pst file and put the files where you specified.

Once you have completed all of the steps above then you will want to check the location where you put the files, in my case I want to check the contacts list and see if the new ones were put in there. This process can be used to transfer contacts from one machine to another for your Outlook 2003. Since these files are saved on the local machine and not on the exchange server if you don’t do the import export then you will have to re-enter all of this information.

Reference:

• office.microsoft.com