outlook contacts problem

[mcalex]

I can't get into my contacts in outlook.  I open the Address Book, then click the 'Show Names from the:' drop down, and then when I click 'Contacts' (there are two entries saying Contacts, btw one of which is empty), the mouse turns to an hourglass for a second and then the whole outlook program shuts down.  No warning, no error, it just disappears.  Any suggestions as to what has happened, and how I fix it?

If nothing else, can someone point me to where the contacts file lives, and i'll delete it and start up a fresh one, coz at the moment, I can't do anything with personal contacts.  :-/

thx
A

[gussery]

The contacts are stored in the same file as your email, calendar, tasks, notes, etc.  Outlook.pst (unless you set it to something else).  So unless you want to lose everything you may not want to delete this file.  Where it is store on your computer is dependant on OS version and Outlook version.

If it were me I would....
1. Make a backup copy of outlook.pst.
2. Rename outlook.pst.
3. Open Outlook and let it create a brand new file.
4. Use File, Import and Export to import the items I needed into the new file.