Problems transferring emails

I'm trying to move emails from an old desktop computer, running Outlook 2003, to a new laptop, which has Outlook 2010 on it.

There's a complication: the old desktop used to be used in a shared office with three people in it, and so has three user accounts: one, which my husband uses, has no password: the other two do, and he doesn't know the passwords.

His account doesn't seem to be the administrator account for the desktop. He can't get in contact with the other two people as they left the business under several thick and impenetrable clouds.

Also, Outlook 2003 isn't showing any "import/export" options so I wonder if that's only available to the administrator account.

I've copied the *.pst files from the desktop to an external hard drive but when I try to open them in Outlook 2010 on the laptop I'm told that my access has been denied.

I've made a new "personal folders file" or whatever it's called, copied it onto that same external hard drive, and got the same result.

I've taken the HDD out of the desktop but it's an IDE drive and I think a 3.5" one (it says "IDE 3.5" on the outside), the docking stations I've got are all for SATA drives, and the only caddies or docking stations I've found for IDE drives are for 2.5" IDE drives from laptops. Bah.

There has to be a way to do this. Any suggestions?

Thanks, Rob. Right now I'll try anything. Wahh!

Lisa, thank you--I'll see if they help.

When the screen comes up with the three separate accounts to log into, if I click on the two password-protected ones it asks for a password, which I don't have.

When I click on David's account, no password is asked for. No dialogue box appears.

Medievalist said:

I suspect that means that the password being asked for when you move the .pst files may be the mail account password--that is, the log on to the ISP password for his account.

Click to expand...

Except that I'm not being asked for any passwords when I try to move the .pst files--all that happens then is I'm denied access to them, on the new machine.

The old machine is the one with the passworded accounts on, and that's the one I'm retrieving the emails from (or, rather, failing to). I can copy them without trouble, it seems, but get the denial of access message when I try to import them into Outlook on the new computer.

And I'm assuming that you've tried the option of clicking OK instead of entering a password in when the dialog comes up on the new machine.

Click to expand...

Yep, I've tried that. And I've tried the few passwords David usually uses, and several others. No luck.

I've resolved some of the problems, but haven't had a chance to do anything more as the laptop has been out and about, on site visits and so on. I'm hoping to finally sort things out this week, and will let you know how I get on. Thank you for asking.

Annnd... it's done!

I finished transferring the emails yesterday. The problems were caused by several things: problems with permissions on the external hard drive I was using to transfer the emails, and on the desktop I was taking them out of; an intermittent problem with the external HDD's cables; several viruses on the desktop, which I think I've now got sorted; and a big restriction on the time I had access to both computers, which are in near-enough constant use.

I'm very glad to be done with this. And thanks for all your help. I love AW!

I'm way ahead of you there, Medie. Already done, and I've not told BD what the password is so he can't access that account. He's dangerous with computers.

Nope, he has an ordinary account and that's all he's getting. I am strict.