I am still amazed at how many emails I get daily from people that all of a sudden have a corrupt hard drive and now they desperately need to get their data. Of course they haven’t backed up their data either. 

I will admit that sometimes it is easy to forget about running those backups on that crucial data. So what you should do is set yourself reminders that alert you regularly, or even better setup an automated backup system. Just make sure you test the backups now and then.

Over the next few weeks we will cover the basics of backing up your data and how you can setup your own automated hassle free backup procedures.

Backing up data in Outlook Express

For today, lets quickly look at how you can backup your data from Outlook Express. This is one I hear about too often – the hard drive crashes, and all emails and contact data are gone for good….well not always, sometimes the data can be recovered. So just backup it before that happens!! Much easier. 

OK, the quick way to backup your Outlook Express data is to copy the folder where the OE data is kept. You can copy it to dvd/cd, external drive or whatever you prefer.

Exporting Outlook Express Data

1) Click Tools -> Options
2) Click on the maintenance tab, then click on the store folder

3) Highlight the store location, then hit (ctrl-c) copy
4) Paste the store location into windows explorer or click start->run, then paste in the store location and click ok
5) Copy these files to your backup location. Preferably make a backup folder called: mail-backup-date (and insert the data of the backup)

Export Address Book

Export your address book to a .csv file (comma separated file).

1) Click File->Export->Address Book
2) Select Text File (CSV) then click Export

3) Select the folder to export your address book (should be the same as where you backed up your mail)
4) Give your backup file a name and date
5) Click Next
7) Select the fields you want to export, then click finish
8) You are done

Do it now!! Don’t say you weren’t warned.

If you do happen to lose any data, try this free download, it is a data recovery product that might save a few headaches. Data recovery download