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Outlook Express Mail to new system

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by mrlaw10 2 views

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ok every time I lose a system but have the backup files, I don't know how to get the old messages saved to the local hard drive. What is the file name and how to I get the new systems Outlook to use it or how to import it. Both versions are Outlook6.0

7 replies

by sgt_shultz

i think what you are looking for is the location (path) of the 'store folder' for Outlook Express. check out Outlook Express\Tools\Options\Maintenance\Store Folder to see where you mail and addresses are being stored. restore that folder from the backup, then just 'point' to the newly restored folder in the newly installed Outlook, capish? hope this helps...

by thechas

Outlook, or Outlook Express?

The programs are VERY different.

In OE, your mail is stored in compressed files with a .dbx extension.
There will be 1 file for each folder in each users OE inbox, along with a file that lists all the folders.

To backup and transport OE messages, simply copy the .dbx files.
Then, use the import tool to recover the files an the new system.

The path to the .dbx files is different for different versions of OE, and Windows.

For XP, the path is
C:\Documents and Settings\{user name}\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express

In W98, the path is along the lines of
C:\Windows\Identities\{string}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

For the address book, it works best to export the book on the old system, then take the file to the new system, and import the address book.

Chas

by mrlaw10

OK you were partically right...the real answer is this...you must know where the folder is that your email is in..(store) as you mentinoned but the true key is that all of your folders full of email is know as .dbx files. Copy these old files from your backup to the new store folder and make sure to include the folders file so that it has a record of the stucture of your local folder drives. I moved all my stuff that I had locally saved to my hotmail (server) side till I copied these into thestore folders. Once in place I moved my newest mail to the old folders.

Also .wab is the file that your address book is in...find it can keep it backed up...HOPE this helps as I hate it to lose all my email and address book each time I have a system go down. All of the above was done on Outlook express 6.0

Should be noted that I did not have to "import" the messages but I did use the import for the address book.

NOTE ...make sure to change the Store folder" to someplace like in My documents in a folder you create called Mial other wise you won't have a backup of these very important files.

by rob_jantz

I upgraded my computer to windows xp and therefore got OE6. I had OE5 and wanted to bring over all my messages. I couldn't get the export/import to work so I finally just made a new folder off of the current store folder which you will find the path to under tools|options|maintenance|store folder and copied my old .dbx files from OE5 into that folder and they changed the path of my store folder. That worked quite well for me. I got my inbox, sent items, and most of my others. I did notice on folder was empty but it wasn't so important.

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