Restoring e-mails and folders

chateauneufdupape

My old desktop has died but I have a backup (pst file) of my old Outlook 2003 e-mails. I would like to add these to another desktop that I have. The new desktop has Outlook 2003 with Windows XP. The new machine has Outlook up and running and has some e-mails that I would like to keep. How do I add my old e-mails and folder structure to the new machine without loosing what is currently on there?

KillerWatt

It's pretty much the same procedure you used to backup the PST file in the first place, except you are importing rather than exporting.

Open Outlook, select Import & Export > Import from another program or file > Personal folder file (pst) > Browse to where your backup PST file is > Select your import options > Job done.

chateauneufdupape

Thanks, can you just confirm that when I import the pst I won't loose the new e-mails that have come in since I made the pst backup?

KillerWatt

Any existing e-mails, contacts, calender appointments, etc will remain where they are.
Whatever you import will be placed in date order by default.

John_Gray

There are two ways to access the emails from an old PST
1) File -> Import (as KillerWatt says above) to import the emails into your current Outlook file structure
2) File -> Open -> Outlook Data File, which gives you another complete structure in your Folder List, which is useful for "just looking", from which you can drag-and-drop items to your current folder structure (if you want), and which you can disconnect if you no longer want to look at it

chateauneufdupape

Thanks to you both. I used Killer Watts method amd have all my old e-mails restored as well as my newer ones. Just need to sort out all the junk!