weelittle - -

Is it, by any chance, that you have no friends and the original address book you're trying to copy is also empty?

[Just a random shot to cover all the bases]

Most computers will have multiple address books. There will be a separate one for each user. Even if you are the only user, and haven't "passworded" logins, there will still be separate address books for "Administrator," "All Users," and for whatever "username" you've done all your email in.

The "Administrator" and "All Users" addy books frequently will be "empty" unless you've had an accident and unintentionally looked at email when not "started normally."

From C:\ in windows explorer, or for a quicker search start at "Documents and Settings," do a search for "all files" using the search term *.wab and you should find all of them. Be sure search subfolders is turned on. (You might have to set options to show hidden and system files to see them, but I don't recall needing to.) File size should give a good clue to which one you want - usually. You can copy the entire .wab file to move it to another machine.

Note that IF THE NEW MACHINE is running Vista, it didn't come with Outlook Express and you'll almost be forced to use Outlook. (Installing OE is strongly disparaged by Vista.) Outlook CANNOT import an Outlook Express addy book (.wab) by any simple means. You'll need to go into the old OE, File Import and Export, and export the address book as a "text file" (.csv) to get something that Outlook can import. You should be able to put the .csv file anywhere convenient, to make it easy to find.

If you export to the .csv format, Outlook Express can import from that form as well, and you can read the .csv as a text file in Notepad or Word to verify what's in it - independent of fighting with the import/export functions, os that you're sure it's the one you want.

My guess would be that you're finding the Administrators addy book and it is empty on the source machine.

John