Create Outlook Express Backup

A Backup Article Contributed by Melissa Larose

Create Outlook Express Backup

Outlook Express backup is a routine process you should consider as part of your backup plan. Windows products are a familiar sight in the software world and Outlook Express is part of that familiarity. Every Windows users knows what Outlook Express is. Using Outlook Express is an easy way to handle your email needs. However, Outlook Express backup may take a little more time and effort to move through if you are learning to do this manually.

Manual Backup of Outlook Express

Yes, it can be done. You can learn to locate your email files and backup them up manually without the help of software. You will be looking for .dbx files, which is the file extension that Outlook Express uses to store your emails. Depending on the operating system you are using you might find these files in the Windows directory or the user data or application data folders.

The easiest way to locate these files is to use your Outlook Express program to show you where they are. Open your Outlook Express program, click on the Tools button and then go to Options > Maintenance > Store Folder. The window that opens will show you the path to your email folders. To arrive at the folder path, copy the path name and put it in the address window of your file manager. This should take you right to your email files.

Outlook Express Backup Protects Your Email

Now that you know where to find your emails, and you have verified that there are .dbx files in the folder you have located, you can now include these files when you backup your critical data. Any backup software program you use should allow you to identify what files and folders you want to include in your backup and then allow you to copy them wherever you choose.

Restoring the files manually is as easy as locating the original email folder and copy the backup over. You will be overriding the existing files so beware if you have added anything critical since you last ran a backup you will need to duplicate what is missing or save it as a different file name. Of, if you are using WinBackup it will automatically restore your email files and address book.

Outlook Express Backup Issues

There is one glitch in all of this process. Some backup software programs lock the files during the backup procedure. This can cause file-sharing issues if you are running Outlook Express during the backup. If you are using WinBackup this should not be an issue as this program does not attempt to lock files during backup so backup while Outlook Express is up and running will not cause any file-sharing issues.

There are other ways to remedy this issue. Just close Outlook Express when running a backup and the problem goes away. You can also try this remedy out to see if it solves the problem too. Copy the files to another folder before running the backup and file-sharing should not be an issue any longer.