Tech Bleg

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I have received a disk with some .pst files on it. I have a mac on my desk. I put the disk in, and when I try to open the folder with the .pst files, I get a message that says:

There is no application set to open the document “archive.pst”.

It then tells me to “search the app store for an application that can open this document, or choose an existing application on your computer.”

Does anyone have any suggestion about what I need to do to get these files open so I can review them?

7 thoughts on “Tech Bleg”

  1. These are (most likely) Microsoft Outlook archives.

    There’s an open source project, libpst, that may be of use to you:

    http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070712065953608

    I’ve not used it, but if you’re looking for a one-time thing (get the data out of the archive), this may do the trick for you.

    Otherwise you may want to look for Mac mail apps that are capable of importing or converting a pst file into a format that you can peruse.

  2. FWIW, it looks like there’s an app on the Mac app store named “PST Bridge” – it’s got a free (10 message limit) trial, so you could check it out to see if it works as advertised with your files. If it does, it looks like it would be about $20 to unlock the app completely.

  5. You can open anything with notepad and maybe you will get lucky and find ascii characters. Also bring up a dos window and open it with the dos editor.

  6. People, people, PEOPLE!

    There’s an app for that. It’s called Outlook. For MacOS. Which has a free 30 day trial.

    Assuming the .pst file was created with a somewhat recent version of Windows Outlook, you should be able to import it without much fuss. If it’s an older version file, then you might need Outlook for Windows or a transfer utility, as Brian Dunbar suggests.

    The only other reason to do it one of the more roundabout ways, Lex, is if you don’t want Microsoft Office on your machine as a matter of principle. I know some Mac and Linux people feel that way, but I imagine you’re more of a do-what-works sort of guy.

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