Parkers Mailbox 
~~Parker Renaud, IT Manager, Colliers Keenan, Inc.

Backing Up and Restoring Outlook

One of the most disheartening things that can happen to any computer user is the loss of data, either through a computer crash, a corrupt hard drive, a fire, or any other cause.

It's said that there are three kinds of people who use computers: 1. Those that have lost data. 2. Those who will lose data. 3. Those who have lost data and will lose data again, and again, and again ... I hope none of you are in the third category. Usually once is enough.

As the IT Manager (and the entire IT department) of a company, I am especially concerned about this, since I am responsible for the safety of the data created by over 90 people. My specialty for this newsletter is using Outlook on a network. In a network, generally the IT department has responsibility for backup. But do you really want to trust someone else, who you may not even know, to backup your Outlook data? I am the IT department at my company but I still backup my Outlook information independently!

Where is your Outlook data stored if you are on a network? 

It is stored in the Exchange Store on the network server, not on your PC, unless you are using "personal folders" instead of the Outlook mailbox. The network backup is probably NOT backing up your "personal folders" since they are stored on your PC. You must back them up yourself.

What do you need to backup in Outlook? 

At the very least, you need to back up your Contacts, Calendar, Inbox, Sent Items, and any sub-folders of these folders you may have created.

What is the best way to back up these folders? 

Read my previous article: Keeping Your Outlook Data Safe

Another issue for network users is having the network down temporarily for: 

• Routine maintenance 
• Installation of new equipment 
• Server lock-ups 
• Server crash

What do you do then? Your server is unavailable, but the data is still there, so the IT department is not particularly concerned. Just be patient, they say. But you have an appointment and need to check your calendar because you can't remember where and with whom! That's when you better be prepared to work off-line. If you have set this up ahead of time, and configured Outlook to synchronize whenever it shuts down, you still have access to everything in Outlook, even though your co-workers are in a panic!

How do you configure Outlook to work off-line? 

Read my previous article: Working Offline in Outlook

To paraphrase the great Rudyard Kipling (with apologies): 

If you can keep your head when all about you, 
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, 
You have restored your data from your backup, 
or are working well off-line again, my friend!

Parker Renaud is the one-man IT department at Colliers Keenan where he manages 90 PCs on 5 servers.