Hello everyone, last WE my PC crashed, still figuring out what is wrong - CPU, Motherboard, or power supply, or all. Either way, I would like to do the following: Since I may need a new motherboard this will require me to re-install MS Office with Outlook on the new motherboard. If I power up using my old HD, install Office, configure Outlook, open Outlook, will I then see all my old e-mails, folders, address book, etc., assuming all these are stored on the Hard Drive and not the motherboard? I pulled all my files for safety from my HD since I was told it was clicking and perhaps going bad, but the e-mails and address book I have not since my PC will not power up. What information is exactly stored on the motherboard vital to Outlook? I have read about pst files and creating them, but since my PC will not boot-up this is not possible, or is it? The scenario I described above would exclude creating any pst file back-ups, but would it work? I am also a bit tired of Outlook and the problems since they are saved on the HD, are not accessible from other computers, some are on my laptop and others on my PC, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions how to place all this on the web while maintaining the features of outlook? Is MS exchange server the answer? What would be the prerequisites? Do I just have to install it via CD on my PC and then I have "virtual" outlook? Thanks in advance for any input and help!

re: Since I may need a new motherboard this will require me to re-install MS Office with Outlook on the new motherboard. You do not install any software on the motherboard. All software is installed onto the hard drive and the OS will load what it needs into the motherboard's memory whenever it needs it. re: What information is exactly stored on the motherboard vital to Outlook? Nothing is "stored" on the motherboard for Outlook or any other program. The motherboard has memory on it, which holds information while the system is running, but once the system is powered off or restarted, the memory is cleared. In fact, even some of the information needed to run the system or any given application may not be in memory all the time - it may be swapped between the memory and the hard drive depending on how much memory is required at any given time. If your hard drive is bad, you may not be able to boot from it, or you may be able to boot up but not access any data. Maybe you won't be able to boot from that drive, but if it is installed as a slave, you might be able access the data that's on it once you boot from another drive. It all depends on what is wrong with it.

Thanks, so far my hard drive is working fine, as mentioned I backed-up all my files except for the Outlook files. So if I boot up with another drive and use this one as the slave I will be able to access my Outlook files? That is my main question.

re: "So if I boot up with another drive and use this one as the slave I will be able to access my Outlook files?" That's a question I can't answer. I can speculate, but I wouldn't want to lead you a stray. Perhaps you should run your question by the folks over at the Windows XP forum. That might be a better place for a hardware/software question than this forum. Tip: Reword your question before you post since the CN forums frown on duplicate posts across forums. Personally, I think there should be some leniency if someone posts a question in the wrong forum and realizes it later, but that's just me.

"So if I boot up with another drive and use this one as the slave I will be able to access my Outlook files?" Probably. As long as Outlook is installed on the new drive. If the pst file was located under your old profile, then you'll need to take ownership of that profile and the files therein. THEN move the pst file to somewhere other than the OS partition. You can then configure Outlook to use the old pst file. "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown