The only supported way to import .pst files into Exchange 2007 is to use Exchange Management Tools installed on a 32-bit machine running Outlook 2003 or 2007: Exchange Team Blog.
However if you download the SP3 version of the 32-bit Exchange Management Tools and try to install them under Windows XP SP3, you get that well-known message, “cannot find the file specified.” (Why is it that they never tell you what file was specified?)
Thanks to this blog post, I found the more details in C:\ExchangeSetupLogs\ExchangeSetup.log. As the blog author suggests, the install failed trying to run C:\WINDOWS\system32\ldifde.exe.
Apparently ldifde.exe is part of Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS). While it may be possible to get that going on a Server 2008 box by turning on the ADDS role, that’s not an option under Windows XP.
I tried the blog author’s suggestion of copying ldifde.exe from my server (SBS 2008) to my XP box, but then it failed because that ldifde.exe is not a 32-bit program.
ldifde.exe is also not available on my 32-bit Windows 7 machine.
Fortunately I still had my decommissioned SBS 2003 machine around, which had a 32-bit version of ldifde.exe. Once I copied that to C:\WINDOWS\system32 on my XP box, I was able to install the Exchange Management Tools and import my .pst file. (Thanks to Alexander Zammit for the helpful tutorial.)
Copying files from a defunct domain controller doesn’t seem like the “best practice” way to install Exchange tools. Anyone know the right way?
I have been struggling with the same thing for a while. Many thanks for publishing this work around.
It works and allows installation of the management tools – therefore it is the right way to do it :-)
Thanks for this, It was doing my head in!
I can’t believe that microsoft don’t publish the fact that you need the file…
Life saver. Thanks!