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Outlook Express Emails

The first step in backing up Outlook Express emails is finding where Outlook Express keeps its files. Outlook Express stores the emails from each folder under your "Local Folders" list in a separate ".dbx" files. For example; there is a file called Inbox.dbx, Outbox.dbx, Drafts.dbx etc. The path to these files is a bit of a mouthful, but here goes:

C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{<Identity ID>}\Microsoft\Outlook Express\

Note: In the path above, the "<your username>" refers to the name of the user account that you want to backup and the "{<Identity ID>}" is a long list of hexadecimal numbers that Windows uses to identify each outlook account.

Note: To view these files in Windows Explorer, you will need to turn on "Show hidden files and folders" option in the Folder Options settings in the control panel.

Outlook Express Address Book

Outlook Express uses the Windows Address Book to store your contacts list, which lives in a .wab file. The path to the .wab files is:

C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\

The Application Data folder is also a hidden folder, so you will need to turn on the "Show hidden files and folders" option to be able to see it.

Backing Up the Files

Now that you know where all your Outlook Express emails and addresses are stored, you can manually copy them onto a backup drive like a USB drive or CD/DVD. If you would an easy way to automatically backup these files, read on!

Microsoft have made a program called "SyncToy" for quite a while now, and it's free! SyncToy is a small backup program that can quickly synchronise a pair of folders.  At the time of writing, the latest version of Synctoy can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&DisplayLang=en

Once you have Synctoy installed, run it and click the "Create New Folder Pair" button at the bottom of the window.

On the next window, click the "Browse" button under the "Left Folder:" box. Navigate to the folder that contains your .dbx files, then Click OK.

Next, click the "Browse" button under the "Right Folder:" box. Navigate to a folder on your backup device, eg a USB flash drive, or external hard disk. At this point I'd create a new folder and call it something like "Outlook Express Emails". Click OK.

Click Next.

In this step, choose "Synchronize" and click Next.

Type a name for the backup, like "Outlook Emails", then click Finish.

Go through this process again, but this time choose the path to the .wab file in the left folder, and create a new folder "Address Book" for the right.

Once you have created both folder pairs, click "All folder Pairs" on the left, and click the "Run" button on the right - All done! both your emails and address book are backed up!

If you want to backup your Outlook Express files again at a later stage, open SyncToy, click "All folder Pairs" on the left, and click the "Run" button on the right.