How to backup whole folders ENTIRE folders with 4444 files in the folders approximate 400MB in VCDblankdiscs?

Transfer of All Cloned OE6 Files After a HD Crash

• A brand new but faulty DVD+/-RW drive caused a major system crash. We were running a Pentium III 800 MHz processor, 10 GB HD, Windows 98 SE with Outlook Express 6.0, and the usual hardware(CD ROM drive, 3.5" floppy drive, etc.). Almost everything fried when the power supply blew, but we managed to "clone" the HD by using a different controller board and different computer. We then rebuilt the whole computer with an ASUS P4XP-X motherboard, 2.40 BGHz Pentium IV chipset, 512 DDR/33, Maxtor 40 GB HD, V.92 fax modem, Sniper 2 graphics card (I think it's a GeForce AGP with 32 MB), and new everything else. The computer is used strictly for business (wp, e-mails with lots of attachments, invoices, filing of documents, etc.) so we probably will upgrade this rather inappropriate, but cheap, graphics card. We transferred all the data from the cloned HD into a file called "Backup" on the new 40 GB C: drive. THE PROBLEM CONCERNS HOW TO REINSTALL THE OE6 FILES, PARTICULARLY THE INBOX AND SENT ITEMS FILES, INTO THE OUTLOOK EXPRESS 6.0 ON THE REBUILT MACHINE! Here's what I tried and what happened: I searched the "Backup" folder using *.dbx, then copied the 19 .dbx files that I found to a new folder, "C:\dbx backup". I then examined each file to see that "Read Only" was unchecked and that "Archive" was checked. I then opened OE6 on the rebuilt computer and did File > Import > Messages. I selected "MS OE6" as the e-mail program to import from. I then browsed and displayed "C:\dbx backup" as the location where the messages are stored. I selected "Import mail from an OE6 identity". "C:\dbx backup" was listed. I then selected "All folders" (deleted items, drafts, inbox, outbox, sent items). The routine ran and said "your data from MS OE6 was successfully imported into Outlook Express", but the process was very fast (almost instantaneous) and those 19 files consist of 45,129,020 bytes! I rebooted and opened OE6, but these files are not installed. I am not a very skilled computer user, so please provide clear and specific instructions on what to do to transfer these files into the OE6 on the rebuilt machine. There is a great deal of business info. in these files that we need, especially in the inbox and sent item stuff. Help!

• Answer:

  frank2-ga: My apologies for the delay in posting this formal Answer to your Question, after you confirmed that the method I provided did indeed work for your situation. Summary: -------- To recap, the solution involved copying your 'old' message store folder to a safe location on your hard drive, and changing the message store location in Outlook Express to point to the new location. In a similar way, your address book can be recovered, too. As for your bookmarks, they too can be recovered by copying the 'old' bookmark files to the 'new' Favorites folder. Details: -------- 1. Open up a File Explorer window, and go to the folder in your C:\Backup folder where you found the dbx files, most likely it is "C:\Backup\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express" (or "C:\Backup\Windows\Profiles\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express"). 2. Select the folder itself (ie. the "Outlook Express" folder), copy it, then go to where your current message store is located (probably "C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express") and paste the old folder over top of the current message store (in other words, go to "C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft" and paste the 'old' Outlook Express folder over top of the 'new' Outlook Express folder). Make sure that there is a "Folders.dbx" file in that copied data, that's the master file. Without it, OE6 won't know to look for the other dbx files. 3. In OE6, set up your e-mail accounts again, it's actually easier to just set them up from scratch using Tools>Accounts... 4. Next, run the address book import wizard (File>Import>Address Book...) and go to "C:\Backup\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book" to find your old address book (or, again, it may be in "C:\Backup\Windows\Profiles\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book") and import it. 5. At this point, with the exception of your Message Rules (which again are best set up from scratch again), you should be back in business. 6. To recover your Favorites, locate your 'old' Favorites folder in your C:\Backup folder, and copy the whole folder over top of your 'new' Favorites folder, which will be either "C:\Windows\Favorites" or "C:\Windows\Profiles\<username>\Favorites". Additional Links: ----------------- '175037 - OLEXP: How to Change the Default Location of Mail and News Folders' http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q175/0/37.asp&NoWebContent=1 'Windows 98: Using Windows 98: Making the move to a new computer' https://www.microsoft.com/windows98/usingwindows/work/articles/901Jan/nc3.asp --------------------- I'm glad that you were able to recover your messages, and urge you to make regular backups of your *.dbx files to ensure that you never lose them. Thanks for using Google Answers, and please feel free to post any requests for Clarification as needed. Please note that I will not have easy access to the Internet over the next week, so your patience will be appreciated to give me time to respond to any Clarification requests that you do have. Regards, aht-ga