Where does OE6 store e-mail in folder on HDD?

[lostplanet]

hi
i need to transfer all the email from a PC to my pendrive, re-format/ install windows XP and then put them back in outlook express
where does OE6 store all the mail, so i can select all and copy in one hit?

other wise it means savin all the email one after one to the desktop mmm


TiA

[EzyStvy]

In OE, click on Tools->Options->Maintenance tab STORE button will show you the current location.

[lostplanet]

thanks stvy
i found the folder but it only has small .dbx files, no email envelopes i was expecting?
is this correct? are the .dbx images of each inbox/outbox etc? and if i save them will i just cut and copy the images into the new OE store location?

[Stryker]

That't exactly what you are looking for (.dbx). Those are "database" files for your messages and you should have a .dbx file for each folder you have in OLE (i.e. Sent Items, Inbox, Deleted Items, Personal Folders, etc...). I have found the easiest way to get it up and running once you have formatted is:

Don't copy the .dbx files in the clean install right away. Open OLE and create the folders (name them exactly the same thing as previously in OLE) just as they were before. Once the folders are created, you will then have the .dbx files in the applicable folder. Just overwrite those new empty .dbx files with the backups you made on your pen drive. This is the easiest and cleanest way that I have found to do it, but someone else may have a better way.

Hope this helps!
Stryker

[zack224]

that may not work because those .dbx files are created by a specific user and that user creates a SID number that is unique to that user. I have tried the other way and have had a 50% success rate with it. The only other way is to export all of your email folders and address book to disk and then import them into the new system. You can do this inside of oe6 click file>export>to disk.


Zack MCSE, A+, NET+

[pillainp]

The best way to do it is as follows.

1) On the Tools Menu, select Options and navigate to the Maintenance tab.

2) Click the Store Folder button.

3) On the box that pops up, click Change...

4) Navigate to the new store location (in your case a folder on your pen drive, which you should have created earlier) and select it on the list.

5) Click OK.

6) Reinstall Windows.

7) Open OE and select Import>Messages... from the File Menu.

8) Select Microsoft Outlook 6 from the list and click Next.

9) Follow the instructions and point the wizard to the store folder on your pen drive.

10) Click OK.

Once the wizard has finished, your mail will all be imported and your folders will look as they did before.

Remember, only your mail will be transferred. There is no way to transfer rules in OE. You will have to recreate them.

Also, once you have imported your mail, I suggest you store them on a different partition than C:, following steps 1 to 5 above, so that they will be safe even if you do reinstall Windows again later. Then, all you will have to do in the new install will be to point OE to the folder containing your mail and set it as your store folder.

Hope that helps.

[lostplanet]

Thanks for replies

i did as suggested with the dbx files and it worked fine apart from when i realised there was already mail on the new system, so i just moved them to a new folder and pasted the inbox.dbx in stored folder and then transferred the new mail back into inbox

thanks for going into so much detail , i am sure i will be back to this post again some time when i forget how its done again nice to have a few options for sure.