isamuelson :
Did you have Outlook or Outlook express before? If you had Outlook, just reinstall it to read the PST files.
You could also install Thunderbird (it's free and it's great) and then install the Thunderbird PST Import plugin to import your PST files into Thunderbird. Thunderbird allows importing of PST files but only on a computer that already has Outlook or Outlook Express installed as the default email program. The PST Import plugin allows you to import PST files on a computer running Windows or Linux into Thunderbird when Outlook is not installed.
You can get the plugin at http://freshmeat.net/projects/pstimportplugin/?branch_id=72191&release_id=265973
Thanks, this sounds promising, but there may be some problems with this. I have Outlook 2002 on my old XP system. I am seeing that that version of Outlook pst files are an early version that may not be compatible with new Outlook or other pst conversion programs. There are probably several things for me to try:
1) Download Thunderbird and the pst import plugin to my 64bit Win7 platform and try to import the old pst files into Thunderbird (I have seen suggestions that this won't work?)
2) Download Thunderbird and the pst Import Plugin onto my old XP platform and try to import the old pst files(same concern as above). If that works, could I then export email and contacts from Thunderbird for import into Thunderbird on my new Windows 7 platform?
3) I could try to install my old Outlook 2002 on the 64 bit Windows 7 platform (I'm not confident this can be done) and import the pst files I created on the old XP platform into the 2002 Outlook on the Windows 7 platform. If this works then what--stay with 2002 Outlook on 64 bit Win7; or, install new Outlook on the Win7 platform and try to transfer my email and contacts to the new Outlook; or install Thunderbird and transfer email and contacts from the old or new Outlook?
4) Install the new Outlook on the Win7 platform and try to import the old style pst's into the new version of Outlook, then use in either the new Outlook or move to Thundbird.
I'm not confident in any of these paths. Do you think any of them are likely to work, or is there a better option? I'd appreciate evaluations and suggestions.