Backing-Up Emails

[anotheoldgit]

I wish to back-up all my Outlook Express emails onto a disk, how do I go about this, taking into account that quite a number of them possess the same name?

My operating system is XP. and do I use a blank CD disc or a blank DVD disc?

[Hypognosis]

Outlook Express stores everything in a single datafile, which can only be read by… (wait for it) …Outlook Express.

OE has been superceded by Windows Live mail and I haven't the patience to find out if the latter can read OE's special format.

Alternative is to use the 'export email' function which creates *.eml files which even Notepad can read.

What I can't comment on is exporting messages in bulk or how much control you get over the filenames. I suspect it was only intended to make saving individual emails possible, in the expectation that people will delete 98% of their emails.

[Hypognosis]

@methyl

yes that's the explanation I was trying to avoid giving!

I was working on the assumption that AoG is planning to junk his XP machine and buy a Win7/8 device.
The question then becomes "how do I read the contents of an OutlookExpress *.dbx file when I don't have a PC with Outlook Express on it any more?"

I need to know this myself and would happily start my own thread, about that, if AoG would prefer that?

[anotheoldgit]

Thanks for your help guys, but not being very computer minded it all seems very complicated, I just wanted to back my emails up in case my computer ever crashed.

I have already backed-up my documents onto my auxiliary hard drive, to do this I created a folder on the auxiliary hard drive and then highlighted all my documents and then copied to this folder.

I thought that doing the same for my emails might be the same.

[bravejordy]

AOG, here's a little tutorial a put together just for you (I just hope these links work!):-

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g311/bravejordy/Saving%20Emails/pic1.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g311/bravejordy/Saving%20Emails/pic2.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g311/bravejordy/Saving%20Emails/pic3.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g311/bravejordy/Saving%20Emails/pic4.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g311/bravejordy/Saving%20Emails/pic5.jpg

Once you've saved your OE mails to folders it should be easy enough to copy them to a blank CD (a CD should be sufficient unless you've got an exceptionally large amount of emails you wish to burn to disc).

The method described above and in the accompanying pictures is exactly the same one I use. Please let me know if there are any parts you don't fully understand and I will try to explain them a little better.

Hope this helps.

BJ