With today’s use of e-mail you almost can’t afford to lose a single e-mail, and especially your entire mail archive, calendar items, and contacts.

This guide is all about backing up and restoring your Outlook Data. It describes various methods and explains which method is best to be used in which scenarios.

Locating the pst-file

Before you can make a backup you’ll need to know what to backup first. In the case of Outlook in a home environment, all data is generally stored in a single file with a pst extension. The pst-file is also known as Personal Folders and is able to store several mail, contacts, journal, notes, and calendar folders.

You can locate your pst-file by using one of the following methods:

Note: Make sure you include hidden and system files and folders when searching for a pst file.

• For Outlook 2007 and earlier on Windows XP the default location is:
  • C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft Outlook\
• For Outlook 2007 and earlier on Windows 7 and higher the default location is:
  • C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\
• For Outlook 2010 and later on Windows XP the default location is:
  • C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\My Documents\Outlook Files\
• For Outlook 2010 and later on Windows 7 and higher:the default location is:
  • C:\Users\%username%\Documents\Outlook Files
• Right-click the root folder in outlook (probably Outlook Today) → Properties → Button Advanced → Field: Filename

Note: While making a copy of the pst-file will effectively backup your Outlook data, it will not include any mail account configuration settings (mail profile), templates or signatures.

Backup pst-file

Backing up the pst-file is quite easy; you just copy the pst-file to your safe location when Outlook is closed. A safe location can be one of the following:

• Another physical hard drive in your machine
• Another physical hard drive in another machine
• An external hard drive
• A USB memory stick
• A flash memory card
• A CD-r(w) A DVD+/-r(w)
• A backup tape
• An online storage location

Backing up an Exchange mailbox

Backing up an Exchange mailbox is the task of the Exchange administrator. Since this is managed on the Exchange server, it’s beyond the scope of this article.

If you are using an Exchange mailbox, contact the administrator of that account.  They can help you create a backup.