Import of Address Book Fails

After reformat and reinstall of Windows 98se we are unable to import Address Book, either to Outlook Express OR to the Address book in Accessories. Prior to reformat and reinstall the Address Book was exported to a floppy disk, we opened the disk and read the address book just to be sure that the export had fully taken place. We now insert floppy disk to the newly reformatted computer, open Outlook Express, choose Import, designate from where to import(floppy disk) and we click go, or import, whatever it says. Disk runs and then we get message Import Success, all files imported. BUT, there is nothing there! This disk CAN be read on another computer. But on this computer, you open floppy disk, see the address file, click on the icon, the address book opens and you see...Nothing...a blank address book. At first thought that maybe, since the book was made up in O.E.6.0 then maybe, since the reinstall just included O.E. 5.0 that maybe this was the problem...so I installed O.E. 6, it CAN be read now on the floppy disk but I still cannot get to Import. Any suggestions

How big is the file... if you open it and the address book is blank, it may mean the originaly copy or export failed. :(

This is a rather large Address Book but we know absolutely the original export to the floppy disk worked because it CAN be read AND Printed on two different computers, including the computer the original export was made on. Have tried importing it to two different computers and it just will not go. It "says" the import was successful" but it is not...of course it may be imported "somewhere" on the computer but it certainly is NOT into the address book and a search does not help us find it.

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Originally posted by jholland1964
This is a rather large Address Book but we know absolutely the original export to the floppy disk worked because it CAN be read AND Printed on two different computers, including the computer the original export was made on. Have tried importing it to two different computers and it just will not go. It "says" the import was successful" but it is not...of course it may be imported "somewhere" on the computer but it certainly is NOT into the address book and a search does not help us find it.

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if it can read off the floppy, why not try to export it off the floppy to a csv file on the desktop then import the csv file into outlook.

Whats the file extension? PAB? WAB?

For some reason importing of address books in the *.wab format occasionally fails. Fortunately their is a way around this. Open the address book on the floppy and Export it as "Other Address Book". Then under type choose CSV- Comma Separated Values. You will then be able to import this into your new address book by choosing Import-Other address book and type Comma Separated Values. Works every time.

Will this then go into the Outlook Express address book as a csv. file or will it look and act the same as a .wab file?

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Originally posted by jholland1964
Will this then go into the Outlook Express address book as a csv. file or will it look and act the same as a .wab file?

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It goes in as a wab file. Note that you will see the options of what fields you wish to import. I usually check them all.

Success! Tried the .csv files first but he had nothing on the computer which could set them up so they were readable...the could be read but were just printed as words followed by a comma...know I am not describing this exactly right but...anyway. So what I did was create a new folder on the desktop, then opened the file on the floppy disk, chose edit, select all and then copy. I then pasted to the new file folder and there they were! All lined up, alphabetical order with little "file cards" next to each name. Click on each name separately and the name's property file came up with a button on the side which said "Add to Address Book". Click the box and they transfer, totally! Whew! what a relief.

You didn't need to go through all that. All you had to do was import the .csv file. You don't need a program to open the .csv file. Windows Address book is set up to import the data contained in the file. The commas represent fields like Name, email address etc. They are arranged in the proper order for the address book to put them in their proper places. Anyway glad you got it in.