The location of where our emails are stored on our computer depends on the operating system (Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 or XP) AND the version of Microsoft Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook EMail programs.
To find them we use the Find or Search program that comes with our operating system. *NOTE:In Windows 2000 and XP you will need to display system and hidden folders BEFORE you commence your search. To do this open "My Computer" and click on "Tools" in the menu bar. Select "Folder Options" and click on the tab "View". Select "Show hidden files and folders". Click OK.
Go to the START button and select FIND or SEARCH (Depends on your version of Windows). Then select "Files or Folders". In the following examples we are using Widows 98 Operating System.
The address book that contains our contact email addresses, is a file with the extension wab after the name. As we do not know the name for this address book we use a "Wildcard" before the extension wab in our search. A "Wildcard" is an astrick (*) and we would type *.wab (astrick dot wab) in the named field for our search.
In this example we have found the address book called "Pelham" located in the folder on our "C" drive WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book.
It is that location we would navigate to in MS Backup, to include the address book in our Backup Set.
EMAIL FOLDERS
Our email is stored in folders (Inbox, Sent, etc). Depending on the version of Windows that we are running, these folders can be stored anywhere !! In addition, version 5 onwards of Outlook Express saves these folders with an extension dbx after the folder name. In versions prior to version 5 they have an extension mbx after the folder name.
Version 5+ of Outlook Express
Type *.dbx (astrick dot dbx) in the named field.
We might not be able to view the full location of our found folders, so by placing your cursor on the right hand divider line of the column header (cursor will turn into a double arrow - see top right hand side of next screen shot) and double clicking, the column will widen out to display the full path. Note: you can use this trick on any column heading in windows and even Microsoft Excel.
As you can see, with the column widened out, our email folders are located in WINDOWS\ApplicationData\Identities\{00AED220-A412-11D3-BF6C-006008E3DAC8}\Microsoft\Outlook Express on the "C" drive.
Imagine finding that if you didn't know where to look !!!!!!
Version 3 & 4 of Outlook Express
Type in *.mbx (astrick dot mbx) in the named field.
MICROSOFT OUTLOOK:
In Microsoft Outlook the address box, email folders and calendar events (in fact everything to do with Outlook) is located in one file only with the extension pst after the name. Again, as we do not know the name of this file, we need to use the "Wildcard" . A "Wildcard" is an astrick (*) and we would type *.pst (astrick dot pst) in the named field for our search.
In this example, the pst file that we want to backup is called "outlook.pst" and is located in WINDOWS on the "C" drive. You may find more than one pst file as Microsoft Outlook archives it's files on a regular basis. These files will be called "archive.pst" or similar - you do not need to back up these files. Should you have any doubt what pst file you should be backing up, check the date of the file in the "Modified" column.
In the above example the file was last used on the 19/04/02 at 5.05PM.
