Here's what he told us:

We have a problem when I move the outlook.pst file to another machine. The Outlook version on both machines is Outlook 2003 SP3. I have a laptop and a desktop. I closed Outlook on both machines. I renamed the outlook.pst file on my laptop to oldoutlook.pst. I copied the outlook.pst file from my desktop and pasted it to the same directory as oldoutlook.pst. I opened Outlook on my Laptop. The Calendar, Contacts and folder list appear OK. However when I go to Tools, E-Mail Accounts, View or change existing e-mail accounts, the list is empty.

It possible the email account information is not held in the PST file?

You're on the right track, Colin. First, we need to know the purpose of a Personal Folder (or .PST) file. Let's do a quick review.

Think of Personal Folders like a virtual filing cabinet, providing a place to store all of your emails for future reference. Personal Folders are contained in a .PST file stored on your local system and can only be used or viewed from within Outlook.

Personal Folders can be set up as the main delivery location for new email. However, they are not designed to actually hold your email account configuration information. The email account information would need to be setup on Outlook 2003 under Tools --> Email Accounts, for each Outlook profile on each system.

Your email account information is considered profile information and your profiles don't move with your Personal Folders. If your Personal Folders are like a filing cabinet, then your profile is more like your wallet or driver's license.

Moving personal folder questions? Below are links to articles that should help answer many of them:

• On Slipstick, visit http://www.slipstick.com/config/movepst.htm.
• At Microsoft, visit http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011124801033.aspx.
• Here on OutlookPower, we've published a bunch in this one issue: http://www.outlookpower.com/issues/issue200412/00001460001.html.

Also check out the Save My Setting Wizard on Office 2003, located under Microsoft Office -> Microsoft Office Tools as this can be used to save your Office 2003 settings for restore purposes and/or to copy them to another system.

Francine Otterson is the President of the San Diego Outlook User Group and a Microsoft Outlook MVP. She has been in the IT industry for over 10 years, providing technical support, software customization solutions and training in corporate settings, and as a consultant. She balances her work around her daughter and husband in sunny San Diego, California.