Help! Computer Crisis!

My hard drive may have been hit by a virus, and it may need to be re-formatted as everything is acting funny. Anyhow…
Can anyone give me step-by-step instructions for backing up emails from Outlook Express? As you know, these “files” do not actually appear in Windows Explorer, so I can’t simply drag them over to my CD-R drive. But, I can’t afford to lose them! Does anyone know how these files can be backed-up?

A computer friend of mine says it can be done, but he doesn’t have the time…and I can’t afford to wait!

Thanks in advance,

  • Jinx

Assuming a recent version of OE…

Under XP find [drive letter]\documents and settings[user name]\local settings\application data\identities{blah blah blah}\microsoft\outlook express*.dbx

Under NT [driver letter]\winnt\profiles[user name]\something similar to above…

The easy thing to do is search for *.dbx files. When you see a directory that has a bunch that match the names of your folders inside of O.E. you probably have found them. Back them up. When you do the restore you point to the back up of them and import or if you are using exactly the same version of O.E. after the restore, you can find the new directory that has the same file types and drop those back ups into their place.

Alternate method - create empty folders that match the folders inside O.E… Open each folder in O.E… Select an email. Type [Ctrl]+A. (Select All) Drag and Drop all the emails into the same name folders you created a minute ago. All the emails will be copied to the folder as .eml files. The can be dropped back into O.E. using the reverse method. Slightly more work (especially if you have alot of O.E. folders) but quite effective.

Another Alternate method - Toolbar --> File --> Export … This will push all your stuff into a MAPI database. I am assuming you aren’t using this style mail or you wouldn’t be worried about backing the files up anyway.

You still need your contact list. Look for a *.wab file in directories close by to where you found your .dbx files. It will probably be [user name].wab. Back this file up too.