Using Microsoft Outlook with Removable Media

There are several types of removable media available to use. Most are connected to the computer via a USB cable or connection. As long as the media shows up in My Computer as a separate ‘Hard Drive’ when inserted into the computer and has enough space to store your Outlook database, it can be used with Microsoft Outlook.

In the following steps, we will assume that you have two computers, although this could be done on more than one. Since there is no way to easily merge the data at this time, if you have more that one computer with an Outlook database on it, choose which one has the most data one it or the one you wish to put on the removable media (i.e. thumb drive or flash drive or portable USB/Firewire hard drive, etc)

1) On that computer, click Start, Control Panel.
 

2) If you see the option to Switch to Classic View in the left explorer bar in the Control Panel, click on the link to do so.

3) Then find and double click the Mail icon

4) Click the Data Files… button
 

5) You should have at least one data file as shown below. Others may also be listed. Select the one that is marked as the Mail delivery location in the Comment column. This is your main Outlook data file.

6) Widen the FileName column so you can see the whole path to the Outlook data file. It is usually named Outlook.pst but can sometimes be called something else.  Make a note of the name of the file and click the Open Folder button.
 

7) Select the data file in question (in this case, it is Outlook.PST) If your computer is configured to hide file extensions, the .PST part of the name will not show up, but the icon should look similar to the following selected icon:

8) Connect your removable media to the computer if you have not already done so. Wait for it to load and dismiss/cancel any auto-run window that Windows may show asking you if you would like to open the folder to display the files on the removable media.

9) Right click the Outlook data file and choose Send To, then click the drive that represents your removable media. This will make a COPY of your Outlook data file on the removable media.

Now that your Outlook data file is located on your removable media, we need to tell Outlook to load the Outlook data file from the removable media instead of from the original location on your hard drive. But first, we need to take a few other steps.

When you insert your removable media into the computer, it is typically assigned the same drive letter each time. For some people who have various different USB devices connected to the computer at any given time, the drive letter for the removable media will change from time to time. Some times it may appear as D: in My Computer and sometimes it may appear as E: or some other drive letter.   All of this depends on what other types of removable media are currently connected.

This changing of drive letters can cause a potential problem if we told Outlook to load the Outlook.pst from the removable media which is on drive D: today, and then tomorrow for some reason it changes to drive E:
The following steps will work around this potential issue.

10) Close all open windows and RIGHT-Click on the My Computer icon and choose Manage. When the Computer Management window opens, select Disk Management.

11) Right-click the drive letter for the removable media and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths...
 

12) Click the Add... button.
 

13) Click the Browse... button.
 

14) Click the plus/+ icon next to the C: Drive.

15) Click the New Folder... button and give the new folder a name such as ThumbDrive or RemovableMedia, etc. Then click Ok.
 

16) Click Ok on the Add Drive Letter or Path dialog.

If you look in My Computer, C: Drive, you will see a folder that represents the removable media. You can now access the contents of the removable drive from this folder or from My Computer through the usual drive letter.

Now we need to tell Outlook to load the Outlook data file from this new location -
C:\RemovableMedia\Outlook.pst

17) Now, go back into Control Panel, Mail. Click the Data Files... button.

18) Click the Add… button.

19) If prompted with the following, just click Ok.

20) In the browse dialog, click My Computer.

21) Double click the C: drive.
 

22) Double click the RemovableMedia folder we created earlier.

23) You should now see the contents of your removable media drive. Double click the Outlook data file.

24) You should see a window similar to this. Change the name from Personal Folders to something like Removable Media or New Outlook Data File. It is important to give it a different name here so we can distinguish between the old data file and the new one later. Click Ok.

25) You will now see your Outlook data file in the list of Outlook data files. Click the Close button.

26) Now click the E-mail Accounts… button.

27) Choose View or change existing e-mail accounts and click Next.

28) From the Deliver new e-mail to the following location: combo box, choose Removable or whatever you named the Outlook data file in Step 24.

29) Click Finish.

30) Click Ok on the Account Manager warning.

31) Now click the Data Files… button again.

32) Select the old data file (Personal Folders in this case) and click Remove.

33) Click Close and Close on the Mail Setup window. Outlook is now set to use the Outlook data file on removable media for the main Outlook database. Open Outlook and make sure your data is there as it was before.

Tip:  If you have any other computers that you wish to set Outlook to use the removable media, close Outlook. Wait a few moments and then disconnect the removable media from the computer after following any steps necessary to disconnect it in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Insert the removable media into the other computer. Then go back to Step 10 and proceed from there.