Backing up Outlook Express messages and contacts [Page of 1]

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Backing up Outlook Express messages and contacts
When you finally decide to upgrade...
By jryan

    For your average user, nothing can be more frustrating than either devastating virus, a hacker, hardware failure, OS change or some other catastrophe, like the kids fooling around on the computer. There are times where you lose invaluable e-mail messages which were stored on your PC and you occasionally lose your Windows Address Book, which some users depend on almost like a lifeline. Well, this article is going to cover the steps you can take to ensure that, with the exception of the failure of hardware and kids, you can take to minimize the damage caused by loss of “Outlook”.

    While there is never any substitute for regular backups, many people that I’ve dealt with have never thought about backing up their most important files. One of the most popular complaints is that backups take too much time and that an entire operating system backup is way to constraining on space. Well, why not backup only the files you need?

    The truth is, there’s a very convenient way to backup the files on your PC, especially those Outlook Express files. What am I talking about? I’m talking about Reliexec Backup. Availible for download on the Reliexec Software site, this lets you backup those files to an external directory. All you do is download, install and then you run it when you have the time. By using the built-in backup list, you just specify the folders you want backed up and let it go to town. But what are these folders and what if I want to do it manually? Well, that’s O.K. too. The folders you would want to look for are similar to the following (Though I am using examples from one of my computers, this may differ for you.) C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{AE766788-B655-4236-9AA8-ACBD85A1CB54}\Microsoft\Outlook Express for your e-mails. Please note that the entry after Identities will differ, check your folders for more details. All you have to do is copy the files contained herein and when you have re-installed Windows or whatever the case may be, you just have to set up your accounts and paste the files into the relative directory on the new system. There are also ways to backup your Accounts, as is illustrated by the following screen shot as well as described in the following article.

The process required for exporting the accounts is rather simple. You open Outlook Express, click on Tools -> Accounts. A window will pop-up, click on the Mail tab. Select the account that you would like to backup (Note: This backs-up only your account settings such as Server, Username, and Password. It does not backup any of the messages associated with that account.) You should then wind up with a screen like the above. Specify the filename, choose a location for it to save in, confirm it by clicking the save button and you’re done.

Now, there’s only one other item to cover, and that’s the Windows Address Book. There are two ways to backup this file. If you’re using Reliexec Backup, set it to backup C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book and any file with the .wab extension. You could also very easily do it manually by going into the Address Book and choosing the File -> Export -> Address Book (.wab). Then, once you’ve reached the new Windows install or whatever, just go into Windows Address Book and select “Import” and choose the file.

That’s it, you’re all done for Outlook Express. Hope it helps.

Windstalker
IceTeks Admin

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7 Comments

Latest comments (newest first)

Posted by Outlook Express repair on July 07th 2005 (01:13)
I have been using Outlook Express repair. Outlook Express more stable and secure than other programs.
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Posted by Outlook Express repair on June 06th 2005 (00:25)
I must admit to being more impressed for Outlook Express repair. I've even recommended it to all my friends.
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Posted by jryan on March 03st 2004 (23:14)
If I remember correctly, I wrote that article back when I was using Outlook Express 5.5 SP2. I had almost forgotten that a newer version had come out, which is surprising because I'm using it and just had to go through restoring some of my messages. Thank you, Bill for pointing that out, and you may be glad to know that a revision of the article is in the works to reflect the newest version of Outlook Express and should be availible within a week or two.
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Posted by Bill Young on February 02th 2004 (00:57)
I finally got my OE6 email messages from my old computer into OE6 on my new computer. But copying and pasting, as you instruct, did not work. I got an error message for each default file (inbox.dbx, outbox.dbx, folders.dbx, etc) that the file was in use by another user hence could not be copied. Even though OE6 was closed. Bad error message.

Another website reported that copying and pasting does not work. Instead the import wizard in OE6 must be used. When I tried the wizard, I got an error message that there were no message files in the temporary directory holding my old messages. Of course they were there. Again, a bad error message.

Finally, the wizard imported successfully after I deleted all the default files from the OE6 message store directory on my new computer. I spent several frustrating hours before I stumbled on this solution. Perhaps, my experience is unique, otherwise your instructions need updating.
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Posted by youngbill on February 02th 2004 (21:12)
I followed your instructions and copied *.dbx files from my old computer (98SE with OE6) to my new computer (xp home with OE6). OE6 in my new computer does not recognize the copied *.dbx files. Any suggestions about what to do?
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