There is a second alternative to this, there are quite a lot of backup tools on the market and I think that with most of them it's easy to save your Outlook profile on to another computer to reimport it after an upgrade. I have the lookeen backup manager installed for this purpose but in general ...
@itsjaayw: Is it? I'd say it's just logical to spend as less time as possible for things which are only indirectly contributing to your work.