How to move old incoming mail to Drive E?

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Fred - 21 Jun 2006 05:40 GMT

First, remember that I don't know what I'm doing....

My inbox is over 300MB and I want to move 90% off the C drive to another
drive. I don't need to access any of it, but don't want delete it yet.
Just put in in cold storage...

Anyway, I can't figure out how to do this using the help menus. Anyone have
an EAST (read "EASY") step-by-step way that I can move it to the E drive?

Thanks!!

Fred

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DGuess - 21 Jun 2006 06:03 GMT

> First, remember that I don't know what I'm doing....
>
> My inbox is over 300MB and I want to move 90% off the C drive to another
> drive. I don't need to access any of it, but don't want delete it yet.
> Just put in in cold storage...

Create a folder on the other drive. Name it Old Mail
Now, from Outlook Express, go to Tools | Options | Maintenance tab
Press the Store Folders button and note the location of the message stores
(DBX files).

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to that folder.

IF you do not see that folder, click on Explorer's Tools | Folder Options |
Views tab
Select "Show all files and folders"
Uncheck "Hide file extensions for know file types".
Just those two.

Now the folder will be visible.

Close OE

Copy the DBX files you find in the folder to the <other drive>:/Old Mail
folder.

Once done, open OE, then delete the messages you don't want in there. You
still have the old ones on the <other drive:/Old Mail folder should you need
to Import them back in for whatever reason.

Or get OEQuick Backup, make a backup to the <other drive> then delete the
old messages.
http://www.oehelp.com

> Anyway, I can't figure out how to do this using the help menus. Anyone
> have
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Fred

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Steve Cochran - 21 Jun 2006 14:32 GMT

Alternatively just move the message store by going to Tools | Options |
Maintenance | Store Folder and set the destination to an existing directory
on E (if the directory doesn't exist then the messages will be lost, so
backup first). Then close OE and reopen it and OE will relocate the entire
message store to that directory.

steve

>> First, remember that I don't know what I'm doing....
>>
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
>>
>> Fred

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Fred - 21 Jun 2006 16:13 GMT

Thanks, folks. I found an old reply and tried it - very simple and worked.
And was reveresible too. For others benefit...

** IMPORTANT: Before you do anything.... If you are going to move or
backup email that is important to you, DO NOT follow this procedure!! I
think I have everything right, but may be leaving something out -- or you
might delete the wrong folder and it could be impossible to get your data
back!

** Take your PC or hard drive down to the friend computer store and pay them
a few dollars to back up your data. It could save losing your data.

Now, I am posting this mainly for my own benefit so I can find it later. :O)

Open Windows Explorer

Go to (in my case, Win98SE) c:/windows.000/Application Data/Identities.

You'll see several folders with random letter names. Look in the one with
the most recent date. Then open subfolder Microsoft/Outlook Express.

Select the DBX files you want to move or backup and copy them (not move) to
another location -- either this drive or another drive.

Repeat this for all those you want to backup.

Then go to the next most recent folder under Identities and do the same. If
there is an older file there and you want to be sure not to lose anything,
copy it and, in the backup location, give it a different name from the more
recent file. (Inbox-June04, Inbox-June04-old1, Inbox-June04-old2, etc.) You
can always go back later and cull out the duplicate emails.

After you are all finished backing up, leave WinExplorer open and open OE6.

In Explorer, go to the new location where you have backed up the folders and
note the first one.

Go to OE6 and open that same folder. Delete all the emails in that folder
and close it. Repeat for each of the backed up folders. ** Be sure to
double check that you are deleting email for a folder that you have backed
up!

There are 2 ways to do this -- one for easy retreival and other for long
term archive.

For easy retreval, leave the folders there with one email in each one.
Later you can copy the DBX file back to the original folder and the email
will either be there or will only take a few minutes to get it back.

Otherwise, if you delete the folder, you have to create a new one, give it
the same name, put an email in it, then copy the file back.

** If I have left out anything, folks, please feel free to comment and
correct.

Fred

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