Steps to Back up Your Outlook Express Mailbox Items

Outlook Express maintains an individual .dbx file for every folder present in its mailbox. These .dbx files are stored on the hard drive of your computer inside the ‘Store Folder’. That means the ‘Store Folder’ is the repository of your entire mailbox content on the local hard drive. Along with the backup of your other valuable data, it is recommended to maintain the backup copy of your ‘Store Folder’ or .dbx files as well. Many people ignore this and then, have to suffer the pain of loss of precious emails, contacts list, and other mailbox data when any unexpected situation like hard drive crash occurs.

To avoid such troublesome situations and safeguard your mailbox data, it is suggested to create and maintain backup of Outlook Express .dbx files. Mentioned below are the steps to create the backup of your Outlook Express mailbox items:

·      Click ‘My Computer’.

·      Press ‘Tools >> Folder Options’.

·      Click ‘View’ tab and click ‘Show hidden files and folders’. After that, press ‘OK’ and close ‘My Computer’ window.

·      Start ‘Outlook Express’.

·      Click ‘Tools >> Options’.

·      Click ‘Maintenance’ tab and click ‘Store Folder’ button.

·      Highlight the address present in the box and press ‘CTRL+C’ to copy it.

·      Now, click ‘OK’ on all the windows that appear after this and close ‘Outlook Express’.

·      Click ‘Start’ button, and then click ‘Run’.

·      Paste this address in the run box by pressing ‘CTRL+V’ together, and then press ‘Enter’.

·      A new window pops up with different files that represent all your folders in Outlook Express. These files are those files which contain all your messages in Outlook Express.

·      It is suggested to copy these files to a CD, DVD, flash drive, or any other external hard drive. Make sure you do not cut these files from this location, as the next time when you open these files, your Outlook Express will not have old email messages.

If your DBX files are large in size, then this process may take large amount of time. However, you should not lose hope in these situations as well because there are various professional mail backup utilities available online. These utilities can create the backup of your entire Outlook Express mailbox data without taking much time or causing data loss. The simple user interface of efficient software makes it easy-to-understand for all, whether he is a professional or non-professional computer user. 

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