Saving old mail from XP with OE

[raybro]

My old laptop running XP Home with Outlook Express 6 has a number of old emails I would like to save to my new Win 8 computer. Is there a way to do that without sending the emails over the internet?

 

[shannon08]

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

 

[TerryNet]

Depending on what email client you are going to use, or are already using, on the new computer it may be easiest to install that client on the XP, import the messages (and anything else desired) and then copy over to the new PC.

 

[raybro]

Depending on what email client you are going to use, or are already using, on the new computer it may be easiest to install that client on the XP, import the messages (and anything else desired) and then copy over to the new PC.

Thanks for the response TerryNet... That sounds like a good approach. I could install Thunderbird on both computers, import the emails from OE into Tbird, then export to a flash drive and import to Tbird on the Win8 machine. I've never used Tbird before, but am willing to give it a try.

Whada Ya think? Sound like a plan? Any other suggestions?

 

[TerryNet]

Sounds good. You could also, after getting it working on the old machine manually "clone" Thunderbird on the Windows 8 or, more officially, use the MozBackup tool.

 

[raybro]

Sounds good. You could also, after getting it working on the old machine manually "clone" Thunderbird on the Windows 8 or, more officially, use the MozBackup tool.

Thanks again.. I'll be working on it over the next couple of days. Got family visits and Xmas stuff to do today and tomorrow.

Happy holidays...

 

[TerryNet]

You're welcome.

 

[pcatrocity]

I use to save all my emails in OE6 to cd. It was easy.

1. Open OE in minimum size window.
2. Make a new folder on desktop. Named OE backup-date.
3. Open it & create new folders inside that with same folder names.
4. You can't copy the folders or emails from OE. You can't drag the folders either. So ...
a. You open the Inbox folder
b. You press Ctrl+A to highlight all emails
c. Drag them into the new Inbox folder you created
5. Repeat for remaining folders.

Note: Even tho you drag them out, they remain in OE folders until you go into OE Program folder and delete them.

 

[TerryNet]

After you've backed up messages that way, pcatrocity, can you then import them to an email client that runs on newer versions of Windows? And does that process depend on the particular email client?

 

[pcatrocity]

TerryNet - I'm not sure if they can be imported or not. It seems to me that the new email
client should be able to import from cd, jump drive etc.
I never imported them after making hard copies. I did use the disks to look up valuable emails like ones containing a license key.
After yahoo went 'unlimited storage' I quit saving hard copies.
If all else fails, changing suffix might help for import.
I'm only a professional rookie.

 

[Triple6]

That method is messy and saves each email individually rather then a single DBX file that you can use to import the email. It's a good method for saving individual emails to archive or open directly though.

If you want to back up ALL the OE files, there's a much easier way: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/270670

And that method can be used to import all those things into Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail maintaining the folders and structures in OE.

 

[pcatrocity]

Triple6 - You're right and I didn't realize that back then. I only saved them because I was getting ready to do new install of OS on 7½ GB hdd back then. So importing them back into OE wasn't really an option with small hdd.

Even tho I have larger hdd now and don't bother anymore; I still remember the old days & old ways. Like Hershey candy bars 5¢ each in 1966.