Saving Outlook 2000 files

In the near future I will be formatting my hard drive and then installing Windows XP. Currently running 98SE.
My biggest fear is losing all of my contacts and emails in Outlook 2000 which I will install again after the changeover.
In windows explorer i have gone to windows, local settings, microsoft, outlook where the archive and personal folders are saved.
If I copy these to a cd will I be able to copy these back into this folder again and have Outlook 2000 contacts and all inbox and folders back in place.

Also, when creating a new contact or email address should it be done in contacts or address book. What is the difference between the to.

Thanks

Hey there, Coach. :)

1. Save all *.PST files to CD. Remember, after copying them BACK to your hard drive, you may need to remove the read-only attribute. Outlook will NOT open a read-only PST file at all.

2. At home, use Contacts only. AFAIK, the only use for the address book is to a) create distribution lists (and I just make a separate contacts folder myself) and b) on an exchange server, some companies force their users to use the address book for storing personal email addresses, and Contacts is actually the company's global contacts list.

Saving just the .pst files will give me back all of my contacts and all emails? Plus the folders under inbox? Just want to make sure.

Thanks for your help.

Yep. If you view your Folder list in Outlook, you'll see "Personal Folders".

Right-click Personal Folders, and hit Properties. Hit the advanced button. It shows the location and filename of your PST, unless you're on an exchange server.

If you have any OTHER folders that are at the same LEVEL as Personal Folders, you may have more than one PST file in use.

If you use auto-archiving, you'll have an archive.pst. I don't auto-archive, so I have no file called archive.pst.

After reinstalling:

--Don't forget to turn on your advanced toolbar
--You can File-Open the PSTs, or replace the existing new PST that is created.
--You can File-Import and Export (Import) the PST(s), which will create new PST(s) in the appropriate place in your new system (best method IMHO)

Oh!! BEFORE you wipe!

--Tools-Accounts, Choose each of your accounts and export them to some good location. Save these with your PSTs. You can them Import your accounts so you don't have to recreate all your accounts. I have several, so this saves me a bunch of time. The files become *.IAF (internet account files) files.

Thank you very much for your help, I appreciate it.

You bet, Coach.