How to Back Up the Outlook Express Address Book and Mail Folders

ID: q188854

The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Outlook Express versions 4.0, 4.01 for Windows 95
  • Microsoft Outlook Express versions 4.0, 4.01 for Windows NT 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows 98

SUMMARY

This article describes how to back up your Microsoft Outlook Express Windows Address Book (.wab) file and mail folders (.mbx) files.


MORE INFORMATION

To back up your Outlook Express .wab and .mbx files or to restore your Outlook Express .wab and .mbx files that you previously backed up, use the appropriate method:

To Back Up the Windows Address Book

You do not have to create a new folder, you can use a folder that already exists. Copying the .wab to another folder allows you to retain the file name.

Copy the .wab file to another folder. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Quit Outlook Express.


  2. Create a new folder to store the .wab file. For example:

    C:\Backup

    For information about how to create a folder, click Start, click Help, click the Index tab, type "new folder" (without quotation marks), and then double-click the topic, "New Folders".


  3. Click Start, point to Find, and then click Files Or Folders.


  4. In the Named box, type "*.wab" (without quotation marks), and then click Find Now.


  5. Copy the <username>.wab file to the folder that you created in step 2.

    For information about how to copy a file, click Start, click Help, click the Index tab, type "copying" (without quotation marks), and then double-click the topic, "files or folders."


To Back Up Mail Folders

You do not have to create a new folder, you can use a folder that already exists. Copying the .mbx files to another folder allows you to retain the file names.

Copy the .mbx files to another folder. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Quit Outlook Express.


  2. Create a new folder to store the .mbx files. For example:

    C:\Backup

    For information about how to create a folder, click Start, click Help, click the Index tab, type "new folder" (without quotation marks), and then double-click the "New Folders" topic.


  3. Click Start, point to Find, and then click Files Or Folders.


  4. In the Named box, type "*.mbx" (without quotation marks), and then click Find Now.


  5. For each mail folder that you want to create a backup copy of, copy the corresponding <filename>.mbx file to the folder that you created in step 2. For example, the Inbox.mbx file is the Inbox folder.

    For information about how to copy a file, click Start, click Help, click the Index tab, type "copying" (without quotation marks), and then double-click the "files or folders" topic.


For additional information about backing up mail folders, click Contents And Index on the Help menu in Outlook Express, click the Index tab, type "backing up mail folders" (without quotation marks), and then click Display.

To Restore the Windows Address Book

To restore the .wab file that you previously backed up, follow these steps:

  1. Quit Outlook Express.


  2. Click Start, point to Find, and then click Files Or Folders.


  3. In the Named box, type "*.wab" (without quotation marks), and then click Find Now.


  4. Rename the current <username>.wab file in the Address Book folder.

    For information about how to rename files, click Start, click Help, click the Index tab, type "renaming files" (without quotation marks), and then double-click the "Renaming files" topic.


  5. Copy the backup copy of the <username>.wab file to the Address Book folder.

    For information about how to copy a file, click Start, click Help, click the Index tab, type "copying" (without quotation marks), and then double-click the "files or folders" topic.


  6. Start Outlook Express.


To Restore Mail Folders

To restore one or more of the Outlook Express .mbx files that you previously backed up, follow these steps:

  1. Quit Outlook Express.


  2. Click Start, point to Find, and then click Files Or Folders.


  3. In the Named box, type "*.mbx *.idx" (without quotation marks), and then click Find Now.


  4. Rename the current <filename>.mbx and corresponding <filename>.idx file.

    For information about how to rename files, click Start, click Help, click the Index tab, type "renaming files" (without quotation marks), and then double-click the "Renaming files" topic.


  5. Copy the backup copy of the .mbx file to the Mail folder.

    For information about how to copy a file, click Start, click Help, click the Index tab, type "copying" (without quotation marks), and then double-click the "files or folders" topic.

    NOTE: The <filename>.idx file is re-created when you start Outlook Express.


  6. Delete the Folders.nch file. To do so, use the following steps:


    1. Quit Outlook Express or Outlook.


    2. Click the Start button, point to Find, and then click Files Or Folders.


    3. In the Named box, type "folders.nch" (without quotation marks), and then click Find Now.


    4. Click the Folders.nch file, and then click Rename or Delete on the File menu.


  7. Start Outlook Express.



For additional information about how to copy an Outlook Express Windows Address Book to another computer, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q182833 How to Copy an Outlook Express WAB to Another Computer
For additional information about how to back up your address book, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q175017 How to Import and Export Address Books in Outlook Express

Additional query words:

Keywords : outexw95 outexnt win98
Version : WINDOWS:4.0,4.01
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto


Last Reviewed: September 9, 1999
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