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Moving e-mails from old PC to new one

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by williamoshea

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Dear Colleagues,
I am changing the computer of my boss who uses outlook express e-mail client. He has created loads of sub folders in outlook express and he wants this folder structure and all e-mails transfered to the new computer. Is there an easy way of doing this. Which files holds all the e-mails on the old PC? Was thinking of copying such a file over to the new PC to overwrite the existing and probably empty one in the new PC.
Please help help help.,

6 replies

by voldar

Yes, there is. Create on the new computer the new e-mail account in Outlook Express (in fact the "old" e-mail account). Export from the old computer the address book and import it in the new computer. Set the folders properties to unhide the hidden files ann system files. Go to the old computer, to the c:\Documents and settings\"User name"\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\"SID"\Microsoft\Outlook Express\ and copy everything on the new computer in the same place. (don't mind if the SID is not the same). That's it.

by voldar

For answer 5 - I did that lot's of times, and allways succeded. You really don't need any third-party tool.

by myths

If overwriting the file doesn't work, and it doesn't alway, you just need to import the messages from the old file into the new account. It will import all folders as well as messages. Warning: If you have downloaded any new messages into the Inbox, you need to move them into another folder with a name not used for the old folders because the Inbox will be overwritten when you import the messages. You might also want to empty the deleted folder and the sent messages folder (unless the sent messages files are needed) before importing.

by thechas

The stored mail for OE is in files with the extension of DBX.

There will be 1 DBX file for each folder plus 1 additional file.

I burn the whole folder onto a CD and use the import tool in OE.

You can also use utilities to back up and extract OE files.

http://www.oehelp.com/DBXtract/Default.aspx

Chas

by tlath1972

do a file export and there should be a thing to save the settings. REmember where you save the file and make a copy of it and put it on a floppy disk or portable media and transfer it to the other computer

by briantruitt

I just recently had to do this and OE doesn't export to OE, just regular Outlook or Exchange and doesn't import that well from another copy of OE. When I tried importing it wouldn't find any of my .dbx files or anything. You'll definitely get the addressbook, but if you want to do it right, use Express Assist. Do a search on Google for it and download it. I think it's free for like 15 days. It does your accounts, messages, addressbook, IE Favorites, and a bunch of other stuff. Good luck.

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