How can I locate old Outlook Express emails?

Q Our laptop with Windows XP on it suffered death at the hands of a grandchild. I removed the hard disk and have connected that to a new computer using the USB port so that I can read it, and I have extracted JPEG images, Word documents and so on.

However, I am unable to find the emails that we used to read using Outlook Express. Could you please help me find them?

Albert Moulder

A The emails are still stored on your old hard disk but they’re in what are called DBX files. Importing them should be easy enough, but you’ll have to find them first, which is the tricky part. They’re in the Outlook Express store folder, which is usually in one of two places.

Open My Computer, and then double-click the icon for your old hard disk. Click the Tools menu, then Folder Options, then the View tab in the dialogue box that appears. In the long list of options on that page, find ‘Hidden files and folders’ and select ‘Show hidden files and folders’. Then untick the box below marked ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ and untick the box below that marked ‘Hide protected operating system files’. Click OK.

Now double-click the Documents and Settings folder, and double-click the folder in there that corresponds to your user name on your old computer. Then double-click Local Settings, then Application Data, then Identities. You’ll see one or more folders with very long names. These correspond to Identities set up in Outlook Express.

If there’s only one, double-click it, then double-click Microsoft, then Outlook Express, and you’ll see a folder full of files. Copy all these to a new folder on your Desktop.

If in the Identities folder you see more than one folder it’s a matter of trial and error as to which contains your mail, so you’ll have to go through the process and see for each folder.

If the above folder doesn’t exist or there are no files there, go back to My Computer, open your old hard disk, then double-click Windows, then Application Data, then Outlook Express, then choose your identity folder.

To import the messages, open Outlook Express and click the File menu, then Import, then Messages. Select Outlook Express 5 or Outlook Express 6 from the list of import options and click Next, then click either ‘Import mail from an OE5 store directory’ or ‘Import mail from an OE6 store directory’ depending on which version you were using, and click OK.

Click Browse, then find the folder on your desktop where you copied the mail files earlier, then click OK and follow the rest of the prompts.

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