Expert: Nancy Janyszeski - 10/16/2009

Question
I am now retired and have another computer abroad. I use outlook 2003. When I travel between the 2 places I take a copy of the current PST file and copy it on the other computer.  On the last 2 trips the copied pst file could not be accessed by the new computer. I then asked my son to send it to me over the internet. ( this took a long time) but I noticed the file he sent me was a different size but same date and time as the copy I had taken. I made sure that everything was closed when I copied the pst file but now suspect that something else was using or keeping the file open. Any ideas please to solve this problem

Answer
Josh, Usually you would import your *.pst file into Outlook not copy it on the computer.  It may be you are copying it to a location that Outlook isn't finding, for some reason.

It may be a security issue or an update on one computer and not the other

I am assuming you are copying outlook.pst from one computer to another.

From the File menu > import/export
use the wizard
export your inbox or your calendar one at a time

from the 2nd computer reverse the wizard and import each object one at a time.

This should work for you - if both computers are the same version of outlook you can use *.pst if not you would use a different format like *.csv Windows.

Nancy