Can't access Outlook Express - PLEASE help

Cate1976

Got a major problem in that I cannot access Outlook Express since it changed to Windows live mail, this wasn't a problem until now. I've changed my phone and can't get the contacts from old phone to new phone, can't use laptop as USB ports are broke and fixing them will be £150 that I haven't got at the moment.

All my friends phone numbers were also in Outlook Express so I thought I could export them from OE to Live Mail but no. Here's what I'm getting. I go to documents on my laptop and click on Outlook Files and see the file which is my email address but with .pst at the end. I click on it to open it to get the phone numbers but get a box come up in the middle of the screen which has Microsoft Outlook at the top left corner and in the main body of the box the circle filled in red with a white x in the middle, the text says Outlook Data Files must be opened from within Outlook.

PLEASE could someone help me as without the numbers I'm going to lose touch with a lot of friends back in Northern Ireland (moved to Norfolk September 2012). Some of my friends numbers are on my old phone but a lot aren't.

Owain_Moneysaver

Your contacts in Windows Live Mail may be stored in contacts.edb located within

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Contacts\{b5f3929f-ba60-4632-ad4e-b602b1c8e007}\DBStore

It's a hidden protected operating system file, so you may need to change your folder search or viewing systems to be able to see it.

You can then use a ESEDB tool to access the data therein eg

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/live_messenger_contacts.html

Case study using the above
http://triplescomputers.com/blog/casestudies/solution-recoverimport-windows-live-mail-contacts-to-new-computer/

jbuchanangb

Not sure waht you mean by Outlook Express changed to Live Mail. These are two different products, and can both be on PC at same time.

Outlook Express files are stored with extension .dbx in a location like
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{Identity-GUID}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\

Are these files still on your PC? (Include search for hidden files.)

File with extension .pst is nothing to do with either Outlook Express or Live Mail. That file format is used for MS Office Outlook.

macman

OP, was your original email client Outllook Express or Outlook? 2 very different things.
The former was free with Windows XP, the latter is a part of MS Office and rarely pre-installed on a PC.

Cate1976

I can't remember what it was but in November 2011, I bought & installed Office 2010 on my laptop which was bought in October 2010. Has Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit as the OS.

macman

But which version of Office 2010? The higher end versions include Outlook. Not Outlook Express, which is a basic email program only that was bundled with XP. It's never been available on Vista or W7.
Outlook is an email and calendar program. If you have installed Outlook as part of MS Office, then why are you also using Windows Live Mail?

jbuchanangb

Hello cate1976
Your original query was about getting your contacts from your PC to your new phone. You have found a filename with a PST extension, and you say you have installed Office 2010. It seems very likely that you have Outlook 2010. But please confirm this so that someone here can give you the right advice.
I am using a Vista PC with Outlook 2010 as my main e-mail system, but I also have Live Mail, and Windows Mail on it. I synchronise all my contacts from Outlook to my Windows Phone through Hotmail. I should be able to understand what you have, and what you are trying to do, and suggest a way to do it.