Ok, my friend’s computer (which was on xp pro and had office 2003) was acting up big time, so I formatted the C drive (after backing up all the data of course) and install win2k pro instead but still want to use office 2003 Now, he has a few pop3 mail accounts and 1 email account via virtual private network (VPN) b/c his client uses exchange so he couldn’t get pop3 account with them After I installed office 2003 , I contacted the IT guy at the client site to ask for the password to the vpn connection; instead of giving me the old password, he changed it on me ; but now with the new password I cant access the old mail that I have downloaded before when it was xp pro. What are my options to retrieve my old mail from before? They are on the local computer but I havent figured out how to get into it I desperately need help on this one. Thanks sooo much.

One thing has nothing to do with the other. Once the mail is downloaded to the pst file, you don't need the password. You need to make sure when you configure Outlook that you use the old pst data file and put is somewhere OTHER than under the user's profile. Preferably on another partition.

oh gosh, i really hope u r right b/c he really needs to access the old emails for his work; i hope your answer applies to email connected through vpn as well as pop mail thank u very much!! :) take care