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| Backing up your work - Part 3 |
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PC support #10: Backing up your work, part 3
19th October 2002
C O N T E N T S
----- INTRODUCTION
1. What this support note covers.
2. The difference between Outlook and Outlook Express
----- BASIC E-MAIL BACKUP
3. Backing up individual messages.
4. Backing up an e-mail folder
5. Restoring backed up messages
----- FULL E-MAIL BACKUP
6. Full backup for Outlook Express
7. Full backup for Microsoft Outlook
9. Full restore for Outlook or Outlook Express
----- CONTACT DETAILS
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----- INTRODUCTION -------------------------------------------
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-- 1. What this support note covers.
This support note explains how to back up your e-mail messages, addresses and account details if you are using one of the following programs:
* Outlook Express versions 5 or 6
* Outlook 2000
Other versions of these programs will be similar, but the details may differ.
The procedure is a little tedious, but it's important if you have e-mails you want to preserve in the event of a hard disk failure or other problem.
Note that if you use a "web mail" account (e.g. Hotmail or Yahoo! mail) and read your e-mail with a web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) then none of this applies as your messages are stored on their computer not yours.
-- 2. The difference between Outlook and Outlook Express
Outlook and Outlook Express are two completely different e-mail programs from Microsoft, but the similarity in their names and the way they look on-screen means that the two are often confused.
* Outlook Express is a free program, supplied with Internet Explorer. Newer PCs usually have it already installed, but if not it is freely available on many magazine cover disks.
* Outlook is a more sophisticated program which comes as part of Microsoft Office. It is not free, and to run it you should have a suitable license. If your PC came with Microsoft Office 97 or later, or if you have purchased Office, you will have a license for Outlook.
To tell which one you are using, start your e-mail in the normal manner and look at the title bar at the top of the e-mail program window (usually blue unless you have changed the colour scheme). It will tell you the name of the program you are using - either "Microsoft Outlook" or "Outlook Express".
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----- BASIC E-MAIL BACKUP ------------------------------------
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-- 3. Backing up individual messages.
If there are only a few messages of value amongst all your e-mail, then the easiest method of backing up is to save just those messages. If there are just a few, and they don't have any large attachments, then you can save them straight to a floppy disk. If they are larger, you can create a folder, copy the
messages into the folder, and then save the folder on a CD.
To do this:
(a) Open the floppy disk from "My Computer", or (if you are going to use a CD) create and open a new folder (anywhere will do -for example inside "My Documents").
(b) Start Outlook or Outlook Express.
(c) Re-size and reposition the Outlook Express main window and the window showing the floppy disk or folder from step (a) so that you can see at least part of both of them on the screen at the same time.
(d) Locate the message you want to save in Outlook or Outlook Express and drag it (holding the left mouse button down) to the floppy disk or folder window.
(e) Repeat this for each message you want to save.
(f) If you are using a CD, write the contents of the folder to the CD.
-- 4. Backing up an e-mail folder
If you have a large number of messages in the same Outlook or Outlook Express folder, it can be rather tedious to copy them all individually using the procedure described above. However, there is a shortcut.
(a) Follow steps (a) to (c) as above, then click (once) on one of the messages in the folder you wish to save.
(b) Click "Edit" on the menu bar in Outlook or Outlook Express, and then click "Select All". All messages in the folder will be highlighted.
(c) Drag the messages into the floppy disk or folder window opened in step (a). All messages will be dragged together.
-- 5. Restoring backed up messages
If you need to restore to Outlook or Outlook Express any of the messages you have backed up, this can be done by reversing the procedures described above, and dragging the saved files back into the e-mail program.
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----- FULL E-MAIL BACKUP -------------------------------------
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-- 6. Full backup for Outlook Express
This will save all of your messages, address book contacts, and account details. The procedure is a little more complex, and it will help if you are familiar with moving around files and folders with "My Computer" or "Windows Explorer".
Most of the details are given in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q270670 which you can find on the web at the following address:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q270670&
Alternatively go to the support main page at: http://support.microsoft.com/ and search for article Q270670.
Note that this article only tells you how to back up to other files and folders on your hard disk. To complete the backup process, these files and folders must be saved to CD (or floppy disk, if they will fit).
-- 7. Full backup for Microsoft Outlook
In general, Outlook is easier to back up than Outlook Express because all of its details are normally stored in a single .PST file. Backing up this file saves all messages, address book details, etc.
For details of how to locate and back up this file see Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q184817. This refers to Outlook 98, but the procedure is similar for other versions of Outlook. The knowledge base article may be found at the following web address:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q184817&
Alternatively go to the support main page at: http://support.microsoft.com/ and search for article Q184817.
-- 9. Full restore for Outlook or Outlook Express
The knowledge base articles above also include information on how to restore the backed up data. However, if you are not confident about doing this contact me for assistance.
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----- CONTACT DETAILS ---------------------------------------
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Chris Livingstone
e-mail: mailto:chris-l@ntlworld.com
web site: http://www.pcparamedic.org.uk |
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