Hi John...unfortunately, I believe you answered your own question.... "it's linked to the server environment and therefore isn't portable" However, it's been a long time since I used OST files with Exchange Server so I could be wrong. Here's a post I copied from the Outlook newsgroups at Microsoft....maybe this will give you some ideas? ___________________________ >Is there a way to open an .OST file that is for a Exchange user account >Mailbox that has been deleted? << If you haven't yet attempted to connect to the new mailbox, you can do the following: Open Outlook Offline Export the mailbox to a PST file Verify the contents of the OST are available in the PST Close Outlook Delete the OST Open Outlook and connect to the new mailbox Import the PST file Create a new OST Synchronize If you've already attempted to access the new mailbox using the existing profile you're out of luck. ____________________ The entire thread of that post can be seen here: http://snurl.com/2jw8 Linda F. Johnson, M.A., MOS Linda's Computer Stop http://personal-computer-tutor.com Free e-Books, Newsletter, and tutorials -----Original Message----- From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Hough, John Sent: Friday, October 03, 2003 11:59 AM To: 'mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: [mso] Re: OST File Question Anyone have any suggestions on this? Thanks ************************************************************* You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe from this group, send an email to mso-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject line. Or, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu. This will also allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with instructions. Once you are a member of the files group, you can go here to upload/download files: http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles *************************************************************