[synthesis]

Using Outlook (not Express). Can send e-mail Ok, but cannot receive - instead get an error message. All account settings are correct for my ISP. Using Windows XP and Office 2003 SP1.

Issue started after I added a new hard drive, then made the new drive the boot drive and the other one the slave. Now, I get this email problem and others:
- Windows Installer box pops up when I open any Office 2003 programs. Says "preparing install..." then gives a message that I should run Setup and then select Repair.

- tried removing Office with add/remove programs and after the Windows installer box pops up with "preparing to remove...", this message appears "This patch package could not be opened..."

- tried to reinstall Office from disc and it would not work - same errors as above.

- tried to delete a separate file and is said the recycle bin was corrupted

Can someone please help?

[Anne Troy]

I would manually remove, then reinstall.
http://www.officearticles.com/misc/r...om_your_pc.htm

Can't help about the recycle bin. Sorry.

[synthesis]

Unfortunately still a problem. I followed the uninstall procedure described in the link and updated the registry as required. When running setup.exe, a Windows Installer box pops up, then after a minute or so a new box appears saying "This patch package could not be opened ...".

Perhaps a dumb question, but could the issue be that I have the original Office 2003 still on my former boot drive which is now the slave drive?

Thanks!

[synthesis]

Problem solved. Here's the link to the article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295823/en-us This installs the Windows Installer CleanUp utility which did the trick and let me reinstall from the disk.

Thanks!

[jerryrm]

Here is what finally worked for me for Outlook 2000.

I went into safe mode and ran the inbox repair tool (scanpst.exe) on my pst file. Then moved it to a separate folder. Then started Outlook and it established a new personal folder. Then imported from the repaired file. Wish I would have figured this out two days ago.