On 3/16/2010 10:49 PM, Claire wrote:
Please help me find all my contacts that are no longer in my address book. I
don't know how to stop automatic updates and after one, I tried to open
Outlook and got message that it was preparing it for first use!!! Now my
contacts are gone. Please explain what to do next. Thank you so much.

Claire From Texas
You are logged into an alternate Outlook profile.

Two things could have happened:

1. You might be logged into a different Windows profile

Are all the files still in your My Documents folder? If yes, you are
probably in the right profile. If not, then you are logged in as a new
user into Windows. You can ask for help with that in a group dedicated
to Windows support as it is not an Outlook question.

None of the information that follows after this point applies to you.

2. You might be logged into your existing Windows profile, but not into
your original Outlook profile.

Go to Control Panel, select classic view, double-click Mail. Now click
on Show Profiles.

What do you see?

If there is more than one profile listed, select the option "Prompt for
a profile to be used". Now try to start Outlook and select a different
profile.

If only one profile is listed or none of the profiles bring back your
data, then your Outlook profile became corrupt and Outlook created a new
one. Your data is likely to be safe. Click on File - Open - Outlook
Data File and see if it shows your data. The file is normally named
Outlook or Outlook.pst (if you have file extensions display enabled).
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
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