Synced and lost all my contacts! :(

**Cicatrize** · #1 (**permalink**) 10-15-2007, 12:17 PM

Last night, I reformatted my computer and reinstalled Vista. I wanted to sync my contacts from my phone into my computer, so I hooked it up, and it didn't work. I had forgotten to install Office 2003, so I guess that may have been a problem. But when I looked on my phone, ALL of my contacts were gone. Is there some way to get them back, or am I screwed? I had a lot of important numbers in there that I don't have stored elsewhere.

riviera · #2 (**permalink**) 10-15-2007, 05:41 PM

You're probably pretty much screwed, that's why I also have my contacts backed up on Yahoo Go! . I'm kind of a redundancy freak I guess.

**mswlogo** · #3 (**permalink**) 10-15-2007, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cicatrize

Last night, I reformatted my computer and reinstalled Vista. I wanted to sync my contacts from my phone into my computer, so I hooked it up, and it didn't work. I had forgotten to install Office 2003, so I guess that may have been a problem. But when I looked on my phone, ALL of my contacts were gone. Is there some way to get them back, or am I screwed? I had a lot of important numbers in there that I don't have stored elsewhere.

I always consider the deaktop as the "Master". You should have backed up outlook before zapping the PC. It's just one single file.

For future reference on Vista it's (All mail, contacts, calendar etc. is in this file).

C:\Users\YourLoginName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Out look.pst

If you do by any chance you have a backup of the PC before zapping it you can just swap this file in from the backup. Slightly different path on XP.

**Cicatrize** · #4 (**permalink**) 10-16-2007, 01:02 AM

I know about Outlook's pst file, but I just didn't think about it when I was backing stuff up before the reformat.

I honestly didn't think it'd be an issue either.

omegax · #5 (**permalink**) 10-16-2007, 09:08 AM

Windows live also will allow you to sync your contacts to hotmail. Its actually that only reason I use hotmail. Doesn't help at all now.. but for the future...

papped · #6 (**permalink**) 10-17-2007, 02:10 AM

I use my exchange 2007 server as the master.

So no matter what happens to my phone my email and contacts are sync'd based on my exchange server.

bakntyme · #7 (**permalink**) 10-18-2007, 05:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cicatrize

Last night, I reformatted my computer and reinstalled Vista. I wanted to sync my contacts from my phone into my computer, so I hooked it up, and it didn't work. I had forgotten to install Office 2003, so I guess that may have been a problem. But when I looked on my phone, ALL of my contacts were gone. Is there some way to get them back, or am I screwed? I had a lot of important numbers in there that I don't have stored elsewhere.

I am sorry if this is an obvious question, but you didn't by any chance have a Sprite Backup or SPB backup of the data, did you?

shadow-tech · #8 (**permalink**) 10-18-2007, 07:17 AM

might sound weird but check the deleted folder in outlook on pc. I had the same problem but in reverse. pc an ppc. found all my lost contacts in deleted folder. always keep print out, hard copy of numbers too. cds, hd's, pc's, ppc's can all fail. backups are great and all but u cannot format paper.

**Cicatrize** · #9 (**permalink**) 10-19-2007, 12:25 AM

Nope, no back ups.

shadow-tech: I just tried it and they weren't there.

If the PPC had a deleted items folder that it would throw the contacts into, then I'd be able to get them back, but I guess that's one way WM fails.