Help archiving Outlook Express mail files

[Lou[NE]]

I'm in the process of trying to archive a bunch of images etc on cd. My lovely wife has a lot of Outlook Express emails that she would like to save so she can clear out her folders. Is there a reasonable way to save the idx and mbx files so they can be made available for our heirs to wonder over? Please feel free to reply via email.

Thanks for all help.

Lou[NE]

[Ernie Renn]

Lou;
Use Windows Explorer and go to: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express\Mail The folders are there. I think if you copy them to disk you could import them at a later date. You might have to rename the copies, so you can bring them back afterwards. Otherwise the older copied folder may overwrite the current one of the same name. If it's Folder 2, maybe make it Folder 2a, or something like that. Or you could just name them Wife's mail and My mail.
I haven't tried this, so try it before you delete any of the mails you want to keep.
You can always save the individual messages.
Good luck!

------------------
My best,
Ernie

The Official Buddy Emmons Website
www.buddyemmons.com

[Jack Stoner]

I'm not sure about Outlook Express (probably the same), but with Outlook, you can make another folder and name it "wife" or whatever you want and then move the files she wants to save to that folder. If you ever want to access the messages, access the folder and all the messages will be there.

Or, you could "export" them to a file. But you would have to "import" them back to see them.

[Lou[NE]]

I found an article on Microsoft's support site (article Q270670) on how to export/import OE mail files. Howsomever, I am exporting from OEExp version 5, and trying to import to version 6. When OEExp 6 asks you what mail program you are importing from, OEExp 5 is not an option - only versions 4 and 6 are listed. Back to the drawing board.

Thanks for your help.

Lou

[Lou[NE]]

Got it to work Had to import an identity first, then selected OEExp6 as the "restore from" program, and checked the "restore from OE6 store file" option.

Thanks again for your help

Lou

[Dave Boothroyd]

I think you should get a lot more worried about whether there is any chance at all that your heirs will have anything that will read the data you save.
Just think back twenty years, if you had data to save in those days, could the computer you have now read it? Does the machine you had then still work? When did you last see those Super 8 movies or play an 8 track cartridge?
Get it printed on good paper and keep your stuff in an album.
Media change, data structures change and operating systems change every year thanks to Bill G