Richard

I don't use Outlook simply because it insists on giving me "features" I don't need; but I think the backup is the same as for Outlook Express.

You should run a "Compact Folders" on the email, close Outlook, and then use Windows Explorer to copy the whole email folder to a safe place. After you've done that you can delete half your Outlook mail messages, compact folders, and copy that half of the messages elsewhere. Import the original email folder (all the messages) and delete the other half of the messages, compact folders and copy the second "half of messages" folder somewhere. The two (or more) smaller email folders should fit on CD for backup.

Theoretically, you can move just individual subfolders within the email folder for backup; but importing from a backup of this kind is much less reliable than if you save an entire email folder, since a partial (folders) backup is likely to miss the "index" folder that's needed for clean re-import.

Note that when your re-import the two separate backup email folders, a message that appears in both folders will appear twice in your newly imported message folder. Messages are identified only by a "record number" so two messages can have identical "names" without overwriting.

Outlook may have the same feature as OE that allows a "File - Save As" and puts an individual message into a separate .eml file. The .eml file will include all the attachments, etc. Saved this way, you can double-click an individual message to open it in OE, and presumedly in Outlook if that's your preferred email program. Since these are not in "database" format, all your individual files will add up to a lot more disk space than the original database, but the individual files - once you've made them - may be handier for recalling "old stuff." (??)

Observation:

Re "all that spyware" in WinXP. WinXP has lots of patches for vulnerabilities, but with the patches installed it's much more resistant to spyware/viruses/malware than any other Windows OS.

Win98 just has a lot of holes and no patches for them.

WinXP does require, for full support, that you have a legal copy of the program, and they're making a pretty big deal about checking whether you do. If you do have a legal copy, it's no real hassle. If you don't, they'll still give you better protection from malware than you have with Win98.

Your current problem probably is the result of malware that's gotten on your machine. That's just a guess, but your symptoms are not something known to happen from other causes that have been common recently.

John