Hi to everyone, I have a friend who is running Office 2000 on Win XP sp2, she had been running this for quite some time without any problems. Yesterday (for the third time recently) when opening Outlook 2000 she gets a message.... Microsoft Outlook Outlook could not open the file containing the folders used to send & receive email messages, create appointments, and open the address book. Please select from the options listed below. Create a new personal folders file. Open an existing personal folders file. She (at different times) has selected both options and also cancelled the message, all with the same results, she looses all her settings in Outlook along with all her addresses in her address book. Any ideas would be appreciated. Keith Keith George (Cornwall UK)

Are you sure that's the exact error? Did she move her pst file before receiving the error? Or, have permissions on the file been altered, preventing her account from accessing it? Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!

Hi Jennifer, From what I can gather, she is only using the computer for her accounts, a little photo editing and the odd letter. She does not delete any files, she usually calls on me to do this sort of thing. Although I have shown her quite a lot of simple things, she is in her 60's and is still afraid of computers. I have searched on the computer and there is no trace of any emails or email addresses. Regards, Keith Keith George (Cornwall UK)

Check under her profile. The pst file should be located in Documents and Settings\user...\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook It may be hidden so you'll have to enable view on all files. Check the permissions on that file. That's where I'd start. I wouldn't recommend Outlook for newbies or "older" users who like things to be fairly simple (like my parents). If she's uncomfortable with doing a lot of maintenance on her files, perhaps a simpler email program might be more to her liking. There is a freeware version of Eudora, or you might even consider Outlook Express. Please post back or email me privately and let me know how you make out. Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!

Thank you very much Jennifer, I will keep you posted. Keith Keith George (Cornwall UK)

Just a line to say thank you for your help and to close this thread. The lady I was helping could'nt wait for me to get back to her (even though I phoned her on the morning of 20th March to say I would be there that evening), she took her computer to a computer shop and paid for the same information (more or less) that Jennifer was giving me. It appears that a Windows update had changed the permissions of the pst file (again). Keith George (Cornwall UK)