I have windows XP and Outlet Express. How can I back up my messages to a CD?
Thanks for your help anyone.

Regards
Kerryg

http://www.iopus.com/guides/oe-backup.htm

You may have to create the backup files on the hard drive first, then write them to a CD afterwards, as I'm not sure if OE can write backups directly to CD. However, I recommend using a USB flash drive instead for this kind of short-term backup which will have to be constantly updated.
It may be more convenient than using a cd-writer in this particular case, and OE backup should be able to write directly to a usb flash drive no problem.

Thanks Grandad
Seems I can copy my messages to a store folder then to a CD one at a time but cannot copy more than one or copy my folders straight across. Any other suggestions?
Regards
Kerry

The easy way is to copy your inbox folder to another folder then burn that to cd
you can also export your address book.
Let me know if you need step by step instructions for this.
Cheers
Peterm

Thanks Peterm. I must be missing something. I have 8 created folders with perhaps 200 emails saved between them. I do not seem to be able to copy an entire folder to anywhere apart from a new email folder that I cannot copy to a CD unless I copy the emails one by one.

Any further help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Kerryg

Consider using a different email client. OE is not particularly user-friendly when it comes to backups -- even less so when you need to restore from them.

Mozilla Thunderbird is free: http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/thunderbird/

I use MS Outlook (the version you get with MS Office) and it's way better than OE. Backup/Restore of emails & contacts is simple and easy. Just involves exporting/importing one file.

Sorry only got here just now.

Open My Computer. Click on Tools then Folder Options on the menu bar. Click on the View tab. Change the setting to "Show hidden files and folders" under the Hidden File and Folder options you will see on the window. Click on Apply. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\(your current profile name)\Local Settings\Identities\, ...(you could not see Local Settings before the change)

If you now see only one gibberish set of numbers, good! If you see more than one, you will have to determine which set is the most recent mail database addresses. If you progress down to from the Identity, you will see a Microsoft folder, then an Outlook Express folder. That is the folder to burn to a CD, but.. note, your address book is someplace else. Export your address book to a WAP file and burn that to the CD as well.

Let me know if you need help...

Sorry for the delay - I have been working late.
Open outlook express click on Tools>Options>Maintenance>store folder
This will give us the path where your folders are kept.It will start with C:\documents etc.
WITHOUT clicking the change - ok or cancel button
Put your mouse cursor at the start of the box and highlight all the text.(left click and drag).
Leaving your mouse cursor in the blue highlight right click and choose copy. Then click on ok.
Click on start then click on run (right hand side) When the run box opens put the mouse cursor in the run box and right click and choose paste. Click ok.
This should take you to a files labled inbox.dbx sent.dbx etc It is these boxes you need to burn.
If you could afford a memory stick. They are also called flash drives thumb drives etc.that would be better.
Do you need help in burning files ?.
As for your address book. Click on file>export>address book. Choose Text file (comma separated value)
Click on export and put it where you can find it. Then burn this file.
Cheers
Peterm

Sorry, I try to let people know where things are actually stored on a system, so they have a better understanding of how a system works. Changing the store folder, does make your life easier backing up the dbx files, but exporting your address book to a CSV file, will then ask you what fields(?). From my experience, if you're simply transporting your address book to another address book, just use WAB, as there is no need for a field definition step on both on export and on import operations. On the new system, just click on import, WAB file and navigate to where the WAB file is, (note: you can not import an address book from a CD but if its copied to the hard drive somewhere it works fine. Same goes for the dbx files. They can not be on a read only drive if you want to import them.

I've gone through more USB flash disks over the last few years then I like to admit, (funny, they seem to burn out after being plugged into a Linux system), as they do not last forever. Burning to a CD does give an almost permanent copy, (unless your kid plays with knives or your dog likes to chew CDs).

This post has been edited by Mark D: Dec 13 2008, 10:58 AM