Reinstalling Windows 10

[Ronnie Campbell]

I have successfully reinstalled Windows on my PC but the email addresses of my people/contacts have disappeared. I have manually replaced those that I know but there are a few that I don't know, Is there any way I can access these addresses.

 

[Bighorn]

Have you looked in the drive for Windows.old? May be something in the Users subFolder about Contacts. Or issue will be with the E-Mail Client you had/have installed.

 

[Ronnie Campbell]

Have you looked in the drive for Windows.old? May be something in the Users subFolder about Contacts. Or issue will be with the E-Mail Client you had/have installed.

Have found Windows.old. Also found a Contacts folder which is empty

 

[Trouble]

A solution, if one exists, will be difficult to suggest without knowing what email program / provider you used with your previous installation.

Web based email will generally store contacts on the server.
Locally installed email programs will generally have a file associated with the program that should contain your contacts.

 

[Ronnie Campbell]

A solution, if one exists, will be difficult to suggest without knowing what email program / provider you used with your previous installation.

Web based email will generally store contacts on the server.
Locally installed email programs will generally have a file associated with the program that should contain your contacts.

My email address is (e-mail address removed) and the provider is VirginMedia

 

[Trouble]

I edited you email address so as to prevent possible web crawlers / spambots from intercepting it.
Generally, it's not a good idea to post your email address on a public forum.
AND
I didn't ask for it and never would except maybe in a private message type environment.
NOW
I asked.....

what email program / provider you used with your previous installation.

SO....
Did you normally retrieve your email using a web browser by logging into Virgin Media??
OR
Did you use an email program such as Thunderbird, Mailbird, or Microsoft Outlook for example.

I'm not familiar with "Virgin Media" but perhaps someone else who is might have additional suggestions or further questions.

 

[Ronnie Campbell]

I edited you email address so as to prevent possible web crawlers / spambots from intercepting it.
Generally, it's not a good idea to post your email address on a public forum.
AND
I didn't ask for it and never would except maybe in a private message type environment.
NOW
I asked.....

SO....
Did you normally retrieve your email using a web browser by logging into Virgin Media??
OR
Did you use an email program such as Thunderbird, Mailbird, or Microsoft Outlook for example.

I'm not familiar with "Virgin Media" but perhaps someone else who is might have additional suggestions or further questions.

Ok thanks for that. I used Microsoft Outlook

 

[Trouble]

IF you, in fact used Microsoft Outlook.... The Full Version, then I would expect that there would likely be a PST (.pst personal store) file somewhere on your computer which you can open in Outlook anytime you want.
Personally, I store my PST file in a unique location on a different physical hard drive and when I reinstall Windows and then reinstall Microsoft Office, I'll point "Outlook" at that PST file when I reconfigure my four email accounts.

You might want to read this

Outlook vs Outlook.com vs Windows Live Mail vs Mail

We've had a lot of questions regarding Outlook, Outlook.com, Windows Live Mail and the Windows 10 "Mail". All of these are Microsoft e-mail products, but they are all very different - as they can sometimes be confused, this article explains a...

www.windows10forums.com

To confirm which version of the various Microsoft email programs you were actually using. It can be confusing sometimes.

 

[Ronnie Campbell]

IF you, in fact used Microsoft Outlook.... The Full Version, then I would expect that there would likely be a PST (.pst personal store) file somewhere on your computer which you can open in Outlook anytime you want.
Personally, I store my PST file in a unique location on a different physical hard drive and when I reinstall Windows and then reinstall Microsoft Office, I'll point "Outlook" at that PST file when I reconfigure my four email accounts.

You might want to read this

Outlook vs Outlook.com vs Windows Live Mail vs Mail

We've had a lot of questions regarding Outlook, Outlook.com, Windows Live Mail and the Windows 10 "Mail". All of these are Microsoft e-mail products, but they are all very different - as they can sometimes be confused, this article explains a...

www.windows10forums.com

To confirm which version of the various Microsoft email programs you were actually using. It can be confusing sometimes.

From Outlook I have located a OST file but cant open it. What do I need to do?

 

[Trouble]

Yep.... you're not going to be able to open a .ost file in Outlook.
Before you do anything you might want to have a look at the last modified date and the size of the file to determine if it is something worth pursuing.
The fact that you have an OST file and not a PST file might suggest you had your account configure as an IMAP or perhaps an Exchange/ActiveSync type account.
Generally IF you setup the account identically to the previous account then you should have access to your old email and contacts (people) which are stored on the provider server.

Going forward, there are many offerings publicly available to convert OST to PST files you may want to research that avenue.
IF you have plans to do that..... MAKE A COPY, do not experiment on the original file.
They are not generally free or for that matter inexpensive but may be worth it in some instances.