Electronic mail (email) is the preferred form of communication today. How stressful would it be if you lost all your emails? Fortunately, backing up your emails in Outlook Express is easy.
Outlook Express stores each folder (inbox, outbox, sent mail, etc) in separate DBX files. In order to back-up all email folders (recommended), all you need to do is make a copy of the entire Outlook Express folder (located in C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{VERY LONG NUMBER}\Microsoft\).
After right-clicking and choosing copy from the context menu, paste the folder into the back-up location of your choice. The back-up should be in a different partition, hard drive or CD/DVD to keep it protected if anything should happen to your main drive.
That was pretty easy, wasn’t it? Now that you have your Outlook Express folder safely tucked away you’re probably wondering how you would go about restoring it if need be. Don’t worry, it’s not too difficult.
There are actually two methods of restoring your emails:
- The simplest way is to make sure Outlook Express is not open (running), then copying the entire folder and pasting it back into it’s main location (C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{VERY LONG NUMBER}\Microsoft\). I recommend you delete the current Outlook Express folder before pasting the back-up (to prevent conflicts).Note: If you’re restoring your emails to a new PC or another Outlook Express identity, this method will not work. Follow method #2.
- Another way to restore the folders and their emails is to open Outlook Express, go to File, Import, Messages.
Select Microsoft Outlook Express 6 from the choices given and click Next.
Choose Import from an OE6 store directory (see screen-shot), then click OK.
Browse to the location where you have the Outlook Express back-up. Once you find the folder, highlight it and choose OK, then choose Next.
In the dialog that follows, choose All folders (to restore them all) or choose the specific folder(s) you wish to import (to select more than one folder, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard while clicking with the mouse on the folders). Click Next, then Finish.
In addition to backing-up your Outlook Express Emails, you can also back-up Outlook Express Account Settings in three easy steps which will make transferring your account settings a breeze.