Backing up Email

Create some folders on your desktop, called inbox, sent, ect.

 

Open OE, highlight and drag the emails you want to archive to the appropriate folders. Simple as that. They will be copied and converted to .eml files, to view them, simply double click one.

 

There is only one issue with this method, if there are emails with the same subject line, you will be asked if you want to replace the email that already has that subject line, if you say yes it will overwrite the email, if you choose no, it will fail to copy that particular email to the folder. This can be a pain for reply emails, I usually clean up my emails first in OE before copying them.

 

There is another method of copying the proprietary .dbx files OE uses to a folder, the only problem with this is if you ever want to access the emails you must copy the dbx files back into OE, but this will overwrite any current emails you have, unless you have them backed up first, if not done properly you can lose emails permanently, this is why I use the other method.

Unfortunately most of the emails I want to save have the same message in the subject line. Is there a way to copy them to a dvd or floppy, or would those have to be renamed also? How do I clean them up before copying them, because most of them are reply messages? I have about 20 with the same message in the subject line. I could print them out but it would take a long time.

" Is there a way to copy them to a dvd or floppy, or would those have to be renamed also?"

 

same problem unfortunately.

 

What I do in that case is to copy the emails one at a time, after one is copied to the folder, you can rename it to include a number 1,2,3,4,5 ect, making it unique, I know it is a pain, but it really is the best way to back up OE emails, and have quick access to them.

 

By cleaning up reply emails I mean you can delete some of them, most reply's have the previous conversations unless they have been edited, so the last reply will contain the entire conversation, make sense?

You are Welcome Robin.

 

You can use OE to view your Hotmail accounts, just go to tools/accounts and set up a new account, when you type in the hotmail address OE will recognize it and set it up automatically, you can view and read all your hotmail in OE, the messages will stay on the hotmail server unless you delete them or drag them to another local folder. This only works for older hotmail accounts, like 4- 5 years old. This free service was stopped for newer hotmail accounts unless you pay for it, I have 2 old Hot accounts I have used for years with OE.

 

This functionality is lost with the New Vista "Windows Mail". :smileysad:

I was thinking about that. Saving one email at a time and then adding a letter or number to the rest of them so they would have a slightly different subject message. I did manage to go through my email and I was able to just delete some of them. The rest I'll copy one by one. And like you said, some of them have the previous conversations in them. The ones that have links in them I want to save onto a disk. I don't trust my pc in case something happens. I do have a hotmail address. I should have had all my mail go there instead of using OE. At least my mail would be on the web if something happens.

 

I just ran a checkdisk to try and make my pc run faster. Only took 3 hours and I got some messages saying that some file segments were unreadable. I've been getting error messages and I'm trying to clean up the hard drive without having to do a clean install. That takes up too much time. I do have backups of all my important stuff, mostly my kids pictures. When I had my 8400 dimension that thing would crash all the time and I was always doing clean installs. On this 9100 which Dell gave me in exchange, so far I haven't had to. I like to keep it that way. But it definitely needs a cleaning and a memory upgrade. I can handle those. I'm going to try and save my email to a DVD R after I change the names a bit and clean them up. See how that goes.

 

The Avatar is cute.

 

Thank you again,

Robin

Wow, I never knew you could do that. My hotmail account must be at least 4 years old, if not older. I'll give it a try. What a great tip. I learn something new every day.

 

Robin

 

Ok, I know what you are talking about now. Takes me a while but I eventually get the hang of things. LOL....

Bummer, I set the account up and I was going to look at the mail that came through Hotmail and I got a message saying Hotmail no longer allows this. I know I've had a hotmail account for a long time. Guess not long enough. Thank you for trying to help me, even though it didn't work.

 

I have never seen Vista and will stay with Windows XP Pro SP2. I just hope MicroSoft keeps on supporting XP. They are always trying to come up with a bigger and better operating system. Just when you learn one browser, you have to start all over again. Personally, I liked DOS. That is what I started out with. Windows was a whole new world when I started learning the first version.

"I know how to set up accounts, but I don't know what the POP server and SMTP server is in Hotmail. I know there was a way to find out, but I forgot. It's been so long since I've set up an email account"

 

 

 

You don't need to know this, just type the hotmail address and OE will do the rest.

mombodog didn't mention this, but if you have an active Gmail or hotmail account that has been imported to Outlook Express, you can just drag emails into the appropriate lolders in these accounts.  If your hard drive fails or if you change operating systems, your mail is recoverable. as it is stored on the internet servers not your computer.

I did set up an active Hotmail account last night in OE after mombodog told me how to, but when I tried to acces my email that was in hotmail while I was in my OE account, I got a message that it wasn't allowed anymore or I would have to get a paid account. The email that I want to save on the server or on a disk in in Outlook Express. I could save each email one by one on a disk, that it takes a while. I tried saving them all at once to a dvd r, but I got a message saying there wasn't enough memory to back them all up at once. I've never heard of Gmail but I do have a yahoo account also.  So I think what I meant to say was that I want to export my OE email out to an account that has a server, or save it on a disk. Does this make any sense? Suppose I could always forward the email in OE to Hotmail, but I'd really like to save it on a disk, if that is possible. It's kind of confusing but what I want to do is have it stored on a server, like you mentioned.

 

Oh, wait a minute. I think I have you all confused. Sorry, but it takes me a bit to get the hang of it. I think now I know what you are talking about. You mean to create a hotmail account in OE and then make folders and then drag and drop the email I want to save into the hotmail folders. Is that what you are talking about? Most of my email that I save has the same message in the subject area. I would need to change the names or make them a little different. Just curious though. Is there a way to save the email to a cd or dvd or floppy?

Hi, sorry you're confused.  Just go to your Outlook Express and then accounts.  Enter the hotmail name for your account, such as mymail@hotmail.com.  Enter your password. and follow directions.  Be sure you are using Windows live hotmail.  If this doesn't work, you can create an account in Google's gmail and access it from Outlook Express.

Ok, I'll give that a try. When I set up the hotmail account yesterday in OE and then tried to access my hotmail from OE, I got a message saying that it wasn't allowed anymore because you needed a paid account. I'm quite sure I was using Windows Live Hotmail, Classic Version. I'll try again and if that fails, I'll set up an account with Google. I didn't even know Google had an email server. I don't recall hotmail asking me for a password when I was setting up the account in OE, but will try again. I think it was moonbodog that told me Hotmail wasn't allowing any newer account in Hotmail to access them from other email programs. I will let you know if it works.

 

Robin

 

I was just trying to set up a hotmail account in OE. I do fine adding an account until it asks me for the accounts Pop server or SMTP server. Do I just click Next when I get those messages? Before I deleted the account last night, I had it all set up. I went to get my Hotmail in OE when the message showed that I needed a subscription. Then it wouldn't let me go no further.

robinhood, The newest versions of OLXPRS do allow it.  Outlook 2003 and up allow it.

Okay, that's good to hear. Now I just have to upgrade to Windows Live Hotmail. I have the Classic version right now but there is a Full version also. I don't know what the difference is.