In Outlook Express:

1. To make a backup of email messages, you copy the .dbx "folder file(s)" to a backup location.

Comment on item 1: Microsoft says that you do not need any index files, and that they will be rebuilt when you bring the .dbx folders back into OE. Numerous other sources say that this often doesn't work, so copying the entire content of the email folder when making a backup is still recommended.

Comment a. on item 1: There is an "easy" way to find the email files. In OE, click on "Tools" then "Options" and pick the "Maintenance" tab. Click the button marked "Stores Location." Select all of what's in the stores location box, and Copy (Ctl-C, or Edit-Copy) the location to clipboard. Cancel out, back to the normal OE view, and close OE. Click "Start" then "Run" and paste the address in the command box. When you "OK" or hit Enter, a Windows Explorer-like view of that "address" will open. Select All, Copy, and paste the whole thing to a backup location (in a folder identified so you'll know which backup it is.)

Comment b. on item 1: In OE, all messages in an OE folder are contained in a single file. You can't use this method to save an individual message, you can only backup and restore complete "folders;" so you would still use the "Save as .eml" from OE if you want to be able to handle a single message as an individual thing.

2. To make a backup of your address book, you Export it as a "Comma Separated Values" text file. File – Export, select "address book," and choose .csv as the "how to export" entry. If you select export as .csv you'll have the option of naming the file and telling it where to go.

Comment on a. item 2: Most of the "Export As" choices in OE assume that you are sending information to another program on your machine, and "will put it where it belongs(?)" if that's true. If the other program isn't installed, they'll generally tell you the export failed, but in some cases they lie and tell you the export was done. So far as I can tell, the "export into another application" choices do not generally produce a file you can copy to a backup if the other application is not on your machine.

Comment b. on item 2: Earlier versions of OE (through OE4.5) were reported as not exporting contacts in sub folders within the address book. It was necessary to move everything into the "top folder" before exporting. I cannot find anything that says that this is still a problem; but I also cannot find anything that says the problem has been fixed.

3. Microsoft states that to restore an email folder from backup to OE you just copy the backup "folder file" back into the "OE store location" (the place you got it from originally). This usually works, but many people have reported failures. If you've encountered a failure, it sometimes works if you create, in OE, a folder with the identical name as the one you'r tring to bring back, and the past will overwrite it when you do the copy. By creating the folder in OE first, the index system in OE knows that it's supposed to process the new folder.

3.a. If you've copied an entire backup per 1 above, you also have the choice of using "File - Import – Email – from backup store," and browsing to your backup location to get a folder back. This is a much more reliable method if OE recognizes your "store," but is not documented in anything "official" that I can find at Microsoft.

4. To restore an address book from your backup to OE, you use "File – Import – Address Book" in OE and specify your .csv (Comma Separated Variables) file as the source to import from.

5. To make a complete backup (for recovery purposes) of your OE stuff, and to restore from that backup you should follow instructions in OLEXP: How to Back Up and Recover Outlook Express Data [Originally Q270670]

Comment on item 5: Any new system installation or upgrade, and ofteen even a "system reinstall" risks wiping out some or all of your OE information. Backup is recommended before it's all gone. The risk of losing info from other browser/email programs is possibly even a little greater than for OE. Almost any browser/email program can export .csv address books, which can be imported back in almost any new browser/email program; but there are far too many different programs to leave off the "almost." As pointed out at the link above, you also have some "accounts" and other things you may want in a full backup. The linked article is somewhat old, dating to when WinME was the hot system; but it is shown as applicable to OE6.

John