Back-up Email – Part 3: Outlook Express

So far this week we’ve looked at how to back-up your old emails, whether you’re using Microsoft Outlook or even webmail services, such as Windows Live Hotmail. Here we look at the easiest way to archive your Outlook Express messages.

If you type in "back up outlook express email" into your favourite search engine you’ll find many ways to do it, and many pay-to-use programs that do it for you. But there’s a very easy (and free) way to do it.

If you use Microsoft Outlook Express, bundled with Internet Explorer 6 and earlier, and want to back-up old messages onto, say, a recordable DVD, in case you ever need to refer back to it, here’s what to do:

1. Open up Windows Explorer, which is a convenient way of seeing the contents of your hard drive as files and folders. A quick way to open this program is to right mouse-click over the Start button and select Explore.

2. Now click on your C: drive letter on the left-hand side of the screen, and in the search window type "dbx" — without the quotes. Be patient as your C: drive is searched and it will eventually show a few file names with the .dbx extension, such as Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, Drafts, and so on.

3. If you don’t see any .dbx files listed, and you use Outlook Express, you might need to check off "Show hidden files and folders" in Windows Explorer. Now you can simply copy and paste (don’t "cut" and paste) these files into your favourite disc burning program to archive your mailboxes.