Outlook Express help, please!

[flashfan]

I need to clean out and re-install my desktop computer, and I've managed to save my documents, etc. onto flash drives. However, I'm having a bear of a time trying to save old Outlook Express emails.

I've spent countless hours fruitlessly trying to find a way to save the docs (without having to copy and paste each one). I searched on the internet and found a program called FileCure/Paretologic--does anyone know if this is any good, or did I just download a virus or worse?

Using File Cure, it seems like I was able to save the OE files, but I can't get them to open up on another computer. What am I doing wrong?!?:hairpull: Is there a better/easier program?

Can anyone help? I'm very non-techie, so an easy/quick method is what I need...in layman's terms, please. Thanks for any help and suggestions!

 

[Greta]

If you were able to save the OE files, then you have to use the "import" function to get them to open on another computer. Open OE on the "new" computer and import the files from the flashdrive.

 

[blasterman]

Outlook Express files are stored in a .DBX extension in your profile folder.

If you do a search of *.DBX, those are your inbox, sent box, folders, etc.

Just manually copy those to the new location *after* OE goes through it's first set-up. That way the older ones copy over the newly created fresh ones.

That's what I would do when dealing with corporate accounts.

 

[CobraMan]

Try to locate the Outlook Express folder for your user ID - look in a folder path like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\????\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{450EDA15-C20A-44CC-B56D-C528B94ED7F4}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

where the ??? is your ID. All of the dbx files should be in there and can be imported back into Outlook Express via File Import menu. You may not be able to see the above folder if you have your system set to not show hidden files. If that is the case then go to Start Help and type in display hidden files - it will give you a step-by-step how to turn this on. Then go back and look for the folder noted above.

Hope this helps.

Good luck,
Tim

 

[Apollo Cree]

If at all possible, dump Microsoft outlook and go to Mozilla thunderbird for e-mail. I believe thunderbird can import outlook mail.

Remember that some of the steps in the process of saving and restoring Outlook files need to be done with Outlook not running.

Outlook is really screwy in terms of making it read data from a restored file or changing the location of the file it uses.

Good luck.

 

[da.gee]

This may be easier than tracking down the DBX files and taking the time to reimport each separate folder/DBX.

Download free Windows Live Mail (WLM), install it on your current setup and import everything from Outlook Express. It knows where to look. It will include contacts, messages but probably not any rules. You won't have to find them. Once done, export everything to a flash drive or whatever using WLM format. Set up your computer, reinstall WLM and import everything back. Voila.

Sooner or later OE will be gone. WLM is the new standard. Good luck.

 

[bedazzLED]

Hi Flashfan.

You can use the Microsoft File And Settings Transfer Wizard. It will transfer all your Microsoft Settings, or the ones you select (OE, ..., ).

Then use it to import them on your new install. Just make sure you have the same username on the new install and all will be OK.

If you don't have it installed, I think it is on the install CD, or you can download it from Microsoft.

Normally found in XP, Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools.
Seems to work OK, except it does not do other programs outside of the Microsoft universe !

I've tried it a few times and it seems to work OK.

 

[flashfan]

Thank you very much for all the replies and tips! Will give it a go, and I hope to check back on a successful re-install. It'll probably take me a long time though, so don't hold your breath...

Thanks very much again!

 

[Radiophile]

Open Outlook Express
tools -> options -> maintenance -> store folder -> change

Then choose a folder on your thumb drive and all of your mail will be transfered to your thumb drive.

Don't forget to export your settings too!
tools -> accounts

Select your mail account and click export to save the file in the same folder in your thumb drive.

If you have address book entries you can export you address book too.
File -> export -> address book
Again, save the file in the folder on your thumb drive

If you have more than one identity you'll need to do the same for each identity. Also, if you have more than one mail account you'll have to save each one under each identity.

OE is a pain, but it's fairly easy to back up as long as you know what to do. I'm sure somewhere there is an article on Microsoft's support pages about how to do this.

I have a suggestion before you reinstall your OS. Partition your hard drive so you have a couple of extra partitions. One for installing programs, and one for data like email folders. When you reinstall all the programs on your computer you can specify the drive you set aside, and then all the data and settings will be saved in that folder. Then should you need to reinstall your OS again, you won't need to transfer all your data to thumb drives etc. because it'll be safe in the data or programs partition. I also add a partition for the windows swap file so the OS partition sees a lot less fragmentation. In all I usually have 5 partitions so reinstalling the OS is fast and easy.

Good luck!

 

[Radiophile]

Importing your settings from your thumb drive to OE is easy. Open OE and exit out of the setup prompt. Then just file -> import and select what you want to import. You'll need to import your account settings before you import your messages.

Good luck!

 

[bedazzLED]

Can I suggest one more thing?

Do a disk image before starting so that if you forget something you can always simply mount the image and grab what's missing.

I have used Ghost, and a number of freebies, but by far the best imaging program is TrueImage.

 

[blasterman]

If at all possible, dump Microsoft outlook and go to Mozilla thunderbird for e-mail.

OP was using Outlook Express, which I admit is a fairly sucky messaging program. There are far superior free alternatives

Regular Outlook on the other hand continues to dominate every corporate messaging environment I've been in. I do hope your problem is with OE.

 

[Radiophile]

OP was using Outlook Express, which I admit is a fairly sucky messaging program. There are far superior free alternatives Regular Outlook on the other hand continues to dominate every corporate messaging environment I've been in. I do hope your problem is with OE.

FWIW - Outlook uses Outlook Express for POP and SMTP. Without OE installed, Outlook can only function with IMAP (which is what most corporate mail servers use). Or at least that was the case the last I had to deal with Outlook in a support role. As a tech who supported both, I'd recommend neither. I still prefer Eudora as I haven't found anything better.

 

[Apollo Cree]

By the way, don't reload your old hard drive.

Swap it with a new hard drive and reload that from scratch. Hard drives are cheap as dirt these days. I saw a 2 TB hard drive for $139 this week. You can probably buy a bigger hard drive in the process.

Not only do you inherently have a backup of all your data, but you can actually plug the old hard drive back in to your PC if the reload goes badly.

You can also find an external USB hard drive enclosure to put your old hard drive in to in order to access your old data. Unfortunately, the slimebags at Microsoft stick a lot of your data into "protected" folders that make it hard to access many of your data files from your old hard drive, even as an administrator.

Be sure to find the appropriate type of hard drive. IDE/ATA vs. SATA is probably the biggest distinction you need to worry about.

 

[Radiophile]

Hard drives are cheap as dirt these days. I saw a 2 GB hard drive for $139 this week. You can probably buy a bigger hard drive in the process.

:thinking: You do mean 2TB don't you? I still remember when upgrading to a 2GB HD was a HUGE step. Of course I was still running 95B and a full install was about 100MB. I still have that computer, and although I don't use it every day, it still runs fine. P200 on a Supermicro P5STE with 64Mb of ram.

I agree with the advice if you need more space, but if you don't I see no problem with using the existing drive. I've got a box I still use daily with 3 hard drives in it packed full of data, but they're partitioned so that I can reinstall the OS and not lose any data other than perhaps my desktop. Everything else is on other partitions including a 2GB partition for my swap file. Oh yeah, my download/data partition contains all the OS and program upgrades that I've installed, so reinstalling is a fairly fast process.

Good luck!

 

[Apollo Cree]

:thinking: You do mean 2TB don't you? I still remember when upgrading to a 2GB HD was a HUGE step. Of course I was still running 95B and a full install was about 100MB. I still have that computer, and although I don't use it every day, it still runs fine. P200 on a Supermicro P5STE with 64Mb of ram.

I agree with the advice if you need more space, but if you don't I see no problem with using the existing drive. I've got a box I still use daily with 3 hard drives in it packed full of data, but they're partitioned so that I can reinstall the OS and not lose any data other than perhaps my desktop. Everything else is on other partitions including a 2GB partition for my swap file. Oh yeah, my download/data partition contains all the OS and program upgrades that I've installed, so reinstalling is a fairly fast process.

Good luck!

Yes, 2 TB, not 2 GB.

If the OP knew how to partition a Wintel machine such that they could reload the OS without losing any data, they wouldn't be asking how to migrate their Outlook files.

BTW, you don't HAVE to buy a bigger hard disk. Even a disk of the same size preserves your old data, and gives you a new hard disk vs. and old one with wear and tear.

 

[Egsise]

Try to locate the Outlook Express folder for your user ID - look in a folder path like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\????\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{450EDA15-C20A-44CC-B56D-C528B94ED7F4}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

where the ??? is your ID. All of the dbx files should be in there and can be imported back into Outlook Express via File Import menu. You may not be able to see the above folder if you have your system set to not show hidden files. If that is the case then go to Start Help and type in display hidden files - it will give you a step-by-step how to turn this on. Then go back and look for the folder noted above.

Hope this helps.

Good luck,
Tim

Thats how I have done it always, works fine.

By the way, don't reload your old hard drive.

Swap it with a new hard drive and reload that from scratch. Hard drives are cheap as dirt these days. I saw a 2 TB hard drive for $139 this week. You can probably buy a bigger hard drive in the process.

Big and cheap, now thats not the way.
Easy way to speed up your computer is to buy a fast hard drive, Seagate 7200.12, WD black etc.

 

[blasterman]

Way too much to do to answer all of this, but first, creating multiple partitions is so 2001.

Hard Drives are cheap, and multiple partitions cause havoc with disk imaging programs.

Linux is way better at handling mounted partitions than Windows, basically because Windows tend to bounce drive letters around at a whim automatically. It's just not worth the hassle, IMHO.

Also, how does Eudora handle message collaboration on Exchange compared to Outlook 07'?

 

[zlatan24]

If you were able to save the OE files, then you have to use the "import" function to get them to open on another computer. Open OE on the "new" computer and import the files from the flashdrive.

I have opened my Outlook Express today. And was astonished reason of my new emails were completely vanished. I was worried and absolutely happened upon - an outlook express store file may be damaged on the I-net. It worked out my proposition within short time and what is more made it free of charge as I bore in mind. The tool showed how it helped to avoid losses for your business and permits to save a lot of resources.