How do I move my Outlook Express folders to my new machine?

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whew! this was fun! My first problem was that when I copied my files to the cd the folders.dbx file did not copy and in fact refused to be copied to cd at all. I had to copy it to floppy then to cd.

The second problem was resolved by moving all the files from cd to a temp directory on my new pc, then I closed explorer(v. important) then proceeded with the import. If explorer was left open outlook express couldn't read the directory.

Hope this helps.

i found the only way to make the import work was to copy all the old .dbx files to a directory on my new machine and to go to tool> options > maintenance and change the Outlook Store directory to the one i had just copied to. Reopen outlook and it works!

Same problems as above, after reading here,went to old machine (with OE5), clicked through to the Store Folder and copied contents of that address to CD. Wasn't able to import from CD to new machine (OE 6) -- same probs as above, so copied folder to desktop of new machine. Went to new OE and copied address from maintenance/store folder, pasted into "run", opened both and manually drag/drop folders from the OE 5 on desktop to the OE 6 Store Folder. then deleted "folders dbx", closed, reopened new Outlook Express -- the old messages were there under Local files. Many thanks Leo and Paul.

Thank you, Paul, for saving my day.
You have to delete the folders.dbx file first and then copy in all your .dbx files or you'll get ' No messages can be found in this folder......

Is it possible to copy my folders and files to a CD and then just access those files and folders on the CD through Outlook when I want to review them?

Sadly, no. Outlook expects to be able to write to the files, and of course the CD will prevent that. You'll need to copy them to the hard disk, and then mark them all as read/write.

Hi! Tried to move OE6 on Win98SE to OE6 WinXP. Based on what I read here: (1) Copied OE98 files to disk. (2) Copied disk to XP desktop. (3) Ran search for current identity in XP. (4) Opened current identity in a window, next to the old identity file on desktop in another window. (5) Dragged files from old to new.
Problem: Now, when I run search for new identity, open it, all the files are there. BUT!!! when I open OE, only the old files are there!
Hint! When dragging the files, I DID NOT REPLACE: 'Folders', 'Inbox', 'Outbox', 'Drafts', 'Deleted', 'Sent', 'Offline', or 'Pop3uidll', dbx files.
Questions:
(1) If I REPLACE new with old, will it then work?
(2) If I REPLACE new with old, will I lose my new messages?
(3) If I do a 'manual search' (Start, All Programs, Acessories, Windows Explorer) I can only find up to "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\. The rest of the path: Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{12345678...} can not be found. Also, if I let the PC do a search (all files and folders), it says it can't even find "C:\Documents and Settings"

Any replies and/or assistance will be GREATLY APPRECIATED!! Jim H..

hi..i currently installed windows xp on top of windows 98 second edition
everything works runs fine..but in the outlook program ive lost all the contacts, inbox mail..and outbox but thats not a concern i just wont to know if theres a way to recover all the contacts i had in my addressbook.
if so please let me know via email..thank you.

Fresh_romance@Hotmail.com

As mentioned in the article, you should be able to "File", "Import" "addressbook", and specify the old, windows 98 address book.

Found a Solution!
These are initial problems:
1. My new pc (XP) did not come with an 3 1/2" floppy...so I bought an external one.
2. My mail 'store' was so large (over 700Mb)I bought a USB 'zip stick' to store the data.
3. Old pc is Win 98; new is XP.
4. XP WILL NOT copy 'Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to a CD!

Solution:
1. In XP go to ALL PROGRAMS>ACCESSORIES>SYSTEM TOOLS>FILES AND SETTINGS TRANSFER WIZARD. Follow instructions until you have copied the wizard on to a floppy. DO NOT TURN IT OFF!
2. Take the floppy to any/all other machine(s), insert the floppy.
3. Select the drive, usually 'a', and open the wizard.
4. Under "Which computer is this", select "Old Computer". Select 'next'.
5. Under "Select a transfer method" select "Other". Below "Other", it says "Folder or drive"; type in "c:\my_outlook_backup", without the quotes. Select 'next'.
6. Under "What do you want to transfer", select "Both files and settings". Also 'check' "Let me select...". Select 'next'.
7. Under "Select custom files and settings", click on EACH AND EVERY ITEM, CLICK REMOVE, UNTIL EVERYTHING IS GONE EXCEPT OUTLOOK EXPRESS. The only things left should be:
Settings
Outlook Express
Specific folders
File types
This setting will still backup all OE data like: E-mails, Folders and attachments, BUT will NOT store passwords. Select 'next'.
8. The Wizard will have created a file called "Usmt2.unc". Copy this to portable storage, (I needed a 1G zip disc/flash drive), and insert into new pc.
9. Continue with F&S Transf. Wiz. on the new pc.

This will merge old OE data, Email, Folders, Rules and Account Settings with anything you have created already on the new pc.

YOU'RE DONE!

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