Reinstalling Outlook Express files

[Philippe]

I had a slight problem when I tried installing SP2 on my Athlon laptop and had to reinstall Windows from the recovery disc. I saved my Outlook Express files. Assuming I did that correctly (and I'm not necessarily assuming that), how the blazes do I load them back into Outlook Express? And now that I have bunches of new stuff in Outlook Express, will there be a problem? Anyone know this? Thanks in advance.

[glc]

It depends exactly how you "saved" the files. What did you do?

[Philippe]

That is one heck of a good question. I believe I must have used the backup utility while in safe mode and burned the files onto a CD. Is that even possible? The files are on a CD. That is unfortunately all I can recall from that terrible night.

[glc]

That's going to make it rough. You have to restore the CD to an alternate location, then go in and find the .dbx files (mailboxes) and the .wab file (address book) - then import them into OE using the import/export wizard. The .dbx import has to be from a "store directory".

[Philippe]

Thanks, glc. I'll wrestle with this a bit and see if I can get it to fly. For future reference, though, what would be the sensible way to back up Outlook Express files?

[glc]

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;270670

Copy the folder you created to a CD for safekeeping - then you can copy it back to the new system for the import process. Note if you use a CD, after copying it back to the new system, you have to remove the "read only" attribute from the folder and files before attempting the import.