No worries mate. :)

Reado - I got around the problem by downloading MS Office 2007 on a 60 day free trial

I decrypted my PST file and resaved it as Office 2000 compatible

many thanks anyway

Twee, are you running the latest Service Pack for Outlook 2000? If not, download and install it from the Microsoft site, then try importing your PST and see if you have the option to include subfolders.

Thank Maxstream - if only it was that simple

OE creates seperate DBX files for each folder (Inbox, Outbox etc) - OE cannot read PST files

I intend to try going via Mozilla Thunderbird to try to recover my files - this supposedly can read PST files - using an add on

The way that I normally do it is to save the folders where the messages are stored just as they are (inbox.dbx and so on) and then after reinstalling just replace the empty inbox.dbx with the old inbox.dbx and so on. I use Outlook Express.

My advice for where you are now is to try Outlook Express instead of Outlook as it may be possible to import the files there. The options to import Outlook messages is certainly in the menu so, in my view, it's worth a try. Outlook Express comes on the operating system CD rather than the Office CD.

I hope that someone can help me with this...

I have just rebuilt my PC and have lost my Office 2003 CD and am stuck with 2000 !!

I backed up my emails as PST files which are not compatible with the earlier version of Outlook

Except for - according to MS.COM

"To import the new .pst file into an earlier version of Outlook, follow these steps:

1. In the earlier version of Microsoft Outlook, click Import and Export on the File menu.
2. Click Import from another program or file, and then click Next.
3. Click Personal Folder File (.pst), and then click Next.
4. Click Browse to locate and open the .pst file that you saved from Outlook 2003. Then, click Next.
5. Under Select the folder to import from, click Personal Folders.
6. Click to select the Include subfolders check box.
7. In the Import items into the same folder in box, click the .pst file that you are importing.
8. Click Finish."

The problem is that point 6. is not possible - there is no "Include Subfolders" check box that I can see

Any ideas ?