Uninstalling Outlook has no impact on the data files, using Archive doesn't
lose data, If you never managed to retrieve old data its because you are
using the incorrect 'retrieval' processes
Having said that uninstall / reinstall is unlikely to do anything
How does Outlook perform if you start it using the safe switch?;
StartRun outlook.exe /safe (note space between exe /)

"palamino" wrote in message
...
My problem is that "find" is permenantly highlighted and when I try to
"reply" to an email, outlook hangs when trying to open Word.
I am running Office 2003 professional and have tried "fixing" with the
disk.
I am a bit leary about a full install because I have email saved in my
folders that I definetly don't want to loose. I am not too sure about
archiving and retrieval. I have never successfully retrieved email in the
past. Anyway Outlook hangs when I try to reply to an email and I have to
shut
the program down through Task Manager.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what caused this. I have done a restore
point past when this started...three days ago when I knew it was working
just
fine. Thank you for investigating this query. Palamino