Computer problems
 

Well, it's now my turn with a brand new Dell.

The issue is that MS Outlook will not open.

The problem developed after I made a huge error by bringing all the files under "documents and settings" over from the old machine. Wrong move. I should have moved "my documents".

In any case, the programs confused each other and I was left with a rather large disaster. I deleted what I could, but some programs would not appear in the program list although they were definitely on the machine.

After about six hours, I got everything working again except Outlook. So, I removed Office 2007 and reloaded it. Same issue. "Cannot open file". Tried another removal and reinstallation with the same result. Word, Powerpoint, and Excel all work fine.

Anybody with an idea before I call the morons?

Try moving your PSI files.



http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup2007.asp



Its down under vista file locations.

I've got XP.

What's a PSI file and where would I move it to?

Apparently, I've got bigger problems.

The folder for "application data" is missing.........:(

Doh, its a PST file, I misspelled it.


I would create a new file, cut and paste it into the new file.


The PST is (i think) here:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

You have to go to


Tools>Folder Options>View>Show hidden and system files

Take it out back and shoot it....

On a serious note. Do you have your original XP installation disc? If worse comes to worse you can just backup your files and do a complete reinstall.

Yep, I've got them. It's looking like that's the way to go.

I don't need to do a backup........all the data is on the external drive. I just moved it today..........but, moved the wrong folder.

What's the procedure for a full install?

Did that.......still missing the "Application Data"

I'm probably hosed here.........

You could try to invoke that "last good system configuration" feature on windows. It has helped me out a couple of times. Other times it is useless but it's always worth a shot.

Try this:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Go into the bios and select "boot from cd rom"
when the computer boots to the xp disk it will ask you what you want to do. It can format and install on it's own

Tried that...........and, unfortunately, none of the programs in Office will load.

It's now missing a file called:
c:\msocache\all users\{91120000-0000-0000-000000Off1ce}-c\smallbusinessww.xml

Thanks.

Yep, that's the next step............tomorrow...........:(

I never like switching these damn things............:mad:

I'm guessing what you are seeing is corruption of the drive’s FAT. This is sometimes easily solvable by running a drive diagnostic called chkdsk and sometimes not easily solvable.

First things first: make sure you have a backup of everything you care about.

Once that’s done:

Open a command window and run the disk diagnostic called chkdsk as follows:

Type “Chkdsk c: /f /r” ((without the quotation marks)and hit the enter key)

Chkdsk will return the following:

“The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.”

“Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)”

select y and hit enter again

You’ll need to reboot the computer at some point. The bigger the drive the longer it takes chkdsk to run. It is a good one to let run over night.

After chkdsk completes, see if the application data directory is still not there.

If it is not, it’ll be quicker to start over than to try and troubleshot.

If that solves the problem, except for outlook: the next step is to build a new profile for Outlook. This will separate Outlook from the data set it holds. This will tell you if the problem is Outlook or the data set. But from what you've described , the problem is likely lost parts of the program.

If you need to start over, look for the Dell supplied CD which says it’s for reinstalling the OS. Someone above mentioned one way to get the computer to boot to the CD when it comes up. When you get the install program to load, select the option to reformat the hard drive rather than fix a corrupted install. But you can try and do that if you want first.

The problem you describe is a media related error and not an OS related error so fixing the install won't solve it. It takes about 3-4 hours to do a full build, of which, maybe 30 minutes is hands on the keyboard