Backup Addresses & Mail Messages

This page will show you one method of backing up both your Address Book and your saved email messages. If you want to read about restoring your saved data, click here. This page shows both backing up and restoring O. E. data on the same page.

Also, you can save your email settings and any messages rules that you may have setup.

This page uses a lot of images to show this, so it may be slow opening if you are using a dial-up Internet connection.

Outlook Express "Export" tool - Address Book

1. Open Outlook Express

2. Click the File menu

3. Select the Address Book command

Click the "Create New Folder" button

Type the new folder's name, "Address Book", then open it.

Save the address book file.

Export your O. E. messages

For your email messages, I suggest just copying all the system files (in the Outlook Express store folder) over to your backup media device. Then should you ever need to restore them, you can use the O. E."Import" tool to bring them back via a O. E. 6 "Store Directory" which you are creating.

Find where you message information is stored

1. To get there, open Outlook Express

2. Click Tools

3. Click Options

4. Click the maintenance tab

5. Click the "Store Folder" button

Select the store folder address

Press Ctrl + C to copy the information

Copy / Paste proceedure

Now, copy the information from the store folder.

8. Open your Windows Explorer

9. In the Address Bar, paste in the store folder address

Note: If you don't see the Address Bar, click the View menu --> Toolbars --> Address.

You may need to unlock the Menu bar to drag the address bar into a visible position.

Windows basic

I know this looks complicated, but it really is not hard. There are just a lot of steps to follow.

If you copy the data (the O. E. store folder) over to your backup media you can forget about importing the data back into O. E. Should you need to restore everything, you can come back to this page and read about the restore process.