Help! How do I back-up my documents and windows mail?

[brentski]

HELP! I have windows vista that has an automatic back-up program in it,but I'd like to learn how to back up my documents, and more importantly,my email using Roxio creator.

 

'I think' I found out how to back up my documents (I think, though I'm not really sure) but have no clue how to back up the entire contents of my windows mail.

 

I can't seem to find the files I want to back-up (such as windows mail) when I click 'add files' or 'add folders' and I can never figure out how to drag and drop things (documents,windows mail) into the window as directed by roxio.

 

Any help and guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much,

Brentski

[jeanrosenfeld]

If this is important to you, and since your original question was about using Roxio to back up your emails you might consider EMC 10. This has Back on Track instead of Backup MyPC. Back on Track has a convenient option to copy just the email files in the selected path from different email clients, either to disc or to a folder you can specify on any partition. You can also choose to compress and/or encrypt. You can schedule it to run at specfied intervals (now, daily, weekly, monthly).

 

I've just tried it and it does a good job. It recreates the folder structure from where it has copied the files. It did both Outlook Express (*.dbx files) and Office Outlook (.pst file) on my system (XP SP2). The date created stamp tells you the time when the backup was made. The date modified stamp is unchanged from the source files. There is also the option to do an incremental backup, saving only those files archived after a specified date (normally the previous backup). There is a related restore function, which uses the index file the backup also creates, so you can select which backup to restore.

 

Back on Track has similar quick select options to back up all or specific categories of files.

[gi7omy]

e-mail is a strange beastie and to back it up it has to be exported first

 

Open Outlook and select all e-mails - then drag them to a folder and use 'copy here'. You will then have a lot of xxxx.eml files that can be saved as backup. I never did find any other way to get at them (or even where they're stored)

[grandpabruce]

e-mail is a strange beastie and to back it up it has to be exported first

 

Open Outlook and select all e-mails - then drag them to a folder and use 'copy here'. You will then have a lot of xxxx.eml files that can be saved as backup. I never did find any other way to get at them (or even where they're stored)

 

I just use Outlook Express, and on my XP computer, they are under C:\Documents and Settings\Bruce....\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities. I copy the folder within, to a separate hard drive. I do this at least 5 times a week.

 

Note: Local Settings is a hidden folder, so you have to tell Windows to show hidden folders.

[malatekid]

If you are using Outlook Express, you will find this MS article useful to back up OE data.

[brentski]

I just use Outlook Express, and on my XP computer, they are under C:\Documents and Settings\Bruce....\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities. I copy the folder within, to a separate hard drive. I do this at least 5 times a week.

 

Note: Local Settings is a hidden folder, so you have to tell Windows to show hidden folders.

 

My problem is I have windows mail that came with Vista so it's different than outlook express,correct?

[grandpabruce]

My problem is I have windows mail that came with Vista so it's different than outlook express,correct?

 

It probably is.

[gi7omy]

Highlighting all mail and dragging it elswehere should still work

[grandpabruce]

If you are using Outlook Express, you will find this MS article useful to back up OE data.

 

Thanks, Malatekid. The address book comes is automatically, when importing everything in the folder that I mentioned. I don't have to export it to an .asv file.

 

I do have to do that for my address book in WordPerfect.

[malatekid]

Thanks, Malatekid. The address book comes is automatically, when importing everything in the folder that I mentioned. I don't have to export it to an .asv file.

 

I do have to do that for my address book in WordPerfect.

Good recommendation Bruce. The article talks only about backing up individual items rather than the entire data.

[grandpabruce]

Good recommendation Bruce. The article talks only about backing up individual items rather than the entire data.

 

If you save it to another drive or partition, on a regular basis, then, if the need comes for you to do a Format C:, or in my case, "ghosting" back to a previous time, when you do the Format C:, you don't have to do anything but open Outlook Express, and import the saved e-mail, etc.

 

If you "ghost" back to a different time, that all changes. When I "ghost" back, I go into the Documents and Settings......., get into the folder with the mail, etc., and delete it all. I then open Outlook Express and import the mail, etc. from the folder on the other drive.

 

If you don't delete the mail on the "ghosted" partition, and import the mail from the other drive, you will have double posts for all posts up to the date that you cloned the partition, that you just "ghosted" back in.

 

Clear as mud, huh?

[Beerman]

I'm an Outlook guy but don't use but a small fraction of what it will do. I also use Thunderbird on a few systems and think it works perfectly well. You can also use MozBackup to back up not only Thunderbird but Firefox history and extensions.

[malatekid]

Life before Acronis was painful. When I had to reimage my old PC, I had to do the steps provided in that article. And mind you, there were five identities sharing the OE. I didn't know about identities.