My Outlook Data Files Are Now .OST - How Do I Backup & Recover Local Contacts (I'm using Office 365 Home Premium)?

I recently upgraded to Office 365 Home Premium and at the same time changed my email protocol from POP3 to IMAP4.
I've now noticed that my Outlook data files stored at C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook are in .ost format.
I use the Calendar in my Microsoft Account as my main Calendar but I store some of my Contacts locally - which .ost file will they be held in and how can I recover them if anything goes wrong?

Hi,
A simple way to know which data file the Contacts are stored in, is to right click on the Contacts folder, click
Properties. Under General tab, find the
Location of it.
We can export the contacts to a .pst file to back up them, for the detailed steps, please refer to this link below and read the information under
Export contacts to an Outlook .pst file:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-in/outlook-help/import-contacts-HA102919678.aspx
If the data file is corrupted and you need to recover the data, we can choose Scanpst.exe from Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272227
In addition, if the email account you are using is an Microsoft Account, I suggest you choose Exchange ActiveSync instead of IMAP. Thus all the contacts are synced between your Outlook Client and the server, Calendars of the account will automatically be
added into Outlook, you don't have to add the calendars separately:
Add an Outlook.com or other Exchange ActiveSync mail account to Outlook
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/add-an-outlook-com-or-other-exchange-activesync-mail-account-HA104025313.aspx
If I misunderstood anything, please feel free to let me know and correct me.
Thanks,
Melon Chen
Forum Support
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Dears,
please i need help as my pst file has been corrupted, after doing scan through SCANPST but, the error have been occurred
unfortunately the PST file is more than 7 Giga, and contain very important mails, is that solvable
gratefully,

Hallo Ahmed,
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Hi,
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Hi TylerThrasher,
I'm having the same problem, you described above about my pst file "not an outlook personal
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The last thing that I didn't try yet is this recovery tool "Advanced
Outlook Repair 3.4"
which I'm not able to find on internet at all !!!
Really
I need your help as this pst file, will save my life... I got fired by my company for a no sens problem. Now I will start a justice process and all my evidences are inside my emails which are blocked inside this file.
Really, will appreciate your help if you can as you already solved your problem.
Thanks you in advance
Loubna

My Outlook Data Files Are Now .OST - How Do I Backup & Recover Local Contacts (I'm using Office 365 Home Premium)?

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