The Importance Of Email Backup
Viruses, software failures, power failures, human errors, hard
drive failures are only a few examples of what could destroy the
data on a hard drive, including all documents, pictures, emails
and other files! Most home computer users don't need an
expensive backup solution; as they only need to burn the folders
with important documents and pictures to a CD-RW from time to
time; this ensuring that in case of a disaster they can easily
get them back. Togeder with documents and pictures, it's a
critical operation to save the emails, attachments, address book
and other important data from within the email client; otherwise
in case of a computer problem the user will find himself in the
impossibility to get them back, and this can be a really
unwanted situation especially for webmasters or people who rely
on their emails. Unfortunately many people actually start to do
backup copies only after they lose data. This article will
explain how one can create a Outlook Express Backup copy ( as
Outlook Express lacks a backup function ) This email program is
usually installed with the Windows operating system and is
probably among the most commonly used email programs today.
While using Outlook Express is fairly easy, finding and backing
up the emails can be a little more complicated. Since there are
a large number of files and folders on a computer running
Windows, the first problem is to find the files containing the
emails. Outlook Express stores emails in .dbx files and there
might be several different dbx files depending on how many email
folders you have created in Outlook Express. If you are using
Windows 98, you can probably locate your emails somewhere in the
Windows directory. In Windows 2000 and XP, emails are usually
stored somewhere in the user data or application data folder.
The easiest way to find out exactly where your emails are stored
is to start Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu, and open the
Options dialog box. In the Options dialog box, select the
Maintenance page and click the Store Folder button. . Here you
can find the path to the folder containing your emails. To open
the folder, copy the path and paste in the address field of the
Windows File Manager. You should see a number of .dbx files and
possibly some other files, too. After locating the email folder,
you can simply select all the files and press Ctrl-C. Then open
the folder where you want to keep the backup copies (on another
hard disk, a DVD or a network drive, for example) in Windows
Explorer, and press Ctrl-V. To backup the Address Book, you can
follow these steps: a.. Select Tools | Address Book... from the
menu in Outlook Express. b.. Choose File | Export | Other
Address Book...from the address book's menu. c.. Select Text
File (Comma Separated Values) as the export format. d.. Click
Export. e.. Select the location you want to export your address
book to using the Browse... button. f.. Give your backup copy a
meaningful name. g.. Click Next. h.. Select the fields you want
to include in your backup. i.. Finally, select Finish. j.. Click
OK. k.. Click Close to end the process (successfully, Ihope).
Additionally, there are several email backup utilities which can
make the backup operation much easier. Outlook Express Backup
Genie is one piece of software that can offer peace of mind by
creating compact backup copies of emails, attachments, address
book, signatures, blockedlist, mail rules and settings
periodically. The difference between using a automatic email
backup utility and manual backups, is that the first can be
scheduled to create backups quiet in the background at specified
time intervals, and that it will include all email information (
signatures, blocked list, etc ) which otherwise would be more
difficult to save. Also if ever the backup is needed, the
application will ensure that the restore process is made
smoothly. And, it works with top 9 popular email clients. The
downside of using a automatic email backup utility is that it
costs money, usually about 20-30 USD as one time payment, while
the manual backups are ofcourse, free.The conclusion is that
either manual or automatic,backing up emails is a critical
operation for every computer user that would regret losing them.
A trial copy of Outlook Express Backup Genie can befound at:
http://www.amicutilities.com/outlook-express-backup/