Difficulties backing up e-mail to a flash drive

[MacArthur]

I'm trying to help a friend with Windows Vista copy her e-mail storage to
a
flash drive for backup.

I found the location of the storage folder (which is not easy, it's listed
under Tools, Options, Advanced). I tried copying the "Local Folders"
folder,
which is the master folder for all the e-mails, to the flash drive. It
began
prompting at each e-mail (all 11,000 of them), saying "if you copy this,
it
will be without the file properties. Proceed?" Copying all the e-mails
without their file properties didn't sound like a good idea, so I stopped.

Then I thought of exporting the e-mails instead of copying them. I
selected
Local Folders in the e-mail program, File, Export, browse for destination.
But the Save As dialog that opens only opened to a subfolder of her named
personal folder, not to Computer. It was impossible to navigate the Save
As
dialog to Computer and thence to the flash drive.

What kind of Save As dialog opens to a subfolder and refuses to let you
navigate up the hierarchy to where you want to get to? Answer: Windows
Vista.

Can anyone help me get past these issues?

Thanks.

Larry

If your friend is using Windows Mail, the correct folder is:
C:\Users\NAMEHERE\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail.

The file you need to copy and paste to the flash drive is:
WindowsMail.MSMessageStore.

I just did that operation; it took several seconds for a 165 MB file.

I then opened the copied file with C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\WinMail.exe
with no problems.

If your friend is using Outlook the file that you need to backup is a
XXXXXX.pst file.

HTH.

--
Live strong and have a nice day, - "Nil carborundum illegitimi"!
Mac H E L P the planet - Don't I D L E ! ! !
Over 1600 Links at Http://MacArthur.Funknstyle.Com
Pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/macarthur
and http://www.flickr.com/photos/macarthur-ii/

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Larry,

Use the address bar. In the browse window, simply click on the first
triangle in the address bar, the one farthest left. Or type in the letter of
the flash drive followed by a colon.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[DaveD]

Try formatting the flash drive as NTFS rather than FAT.
FAT can't handle the advanced NTFS file properties.

I use XCOPY in a command (batch) file with several switches to back up
emails and other files to an external drive.
For a one-time backup, you could just type the command in a command window.
Here's my method, showing only the email backup:

XCOPY "C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail" U:\Mail
/d/s/c/i/h/r/k/o/y

(U:\Mail is my name for the backup folder on my external USB drive.)

Type XCOPY/? in a command window to see an explanation of all the switches.

I hope this helps.

Dave

 

[Larry]

I'm trying to help a friend with Windows Vista copy her e-mail storage to a
flash drive for backup.

I found the location of the storage folder (which is not easy, it's listed
under Tools, Options, Advanced). I tried copying the "Local Folders" folder,
which is the master folder for all the e-mails, to the flash drive. It began
prompting at each e-mail (all 11,000 of them), saying "if you copy this, it
will be without the file properties. Proceed?" Copying all the e-mails
without their file properties didn't sound like a good idea, so I stopped.

Then I thought of exporting the e-mails instead of copying them. I selected
Local Folders in the e-mail program, File, Export, browse for destination.
But the Save As dialog that opens only opened to a subfolder of her named
personal folder, not to Computer. It was impossible to navigate the Save As
dialog to Computer and thence to the flash drive.

What kind of Save As dialog opens to a subfolder and refuses to let you
navigate up the hierarchy to where you want to get to? Answer: Windows
Vista.

Can anyone help me get past these issues?

Thanks.

Larry

 

[Drew T]

Larry,

I'm assuming there will be future backups of this folder. I've found that
SyncToy 2.0 works great for backing up my data files. In fact, I back them
up to two separate flash drives.

www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C26EFA36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en

Drew

 

[John Doe]

What kind of Save As dialog opens to a subfolder and refuses to
let you navigate up the hierarchy to where you want to get to?
Answer: Windows Vista.

Trying to back up Outlook Express e-mail has always been that way.
In Windows XP, there is an Outlook Express e-mail folder hidden and
buried somewhere.

 

[Larry]

Thanks, everyone, for the responses.

Larry

 

[John Doe]

I just can't help myself thinking about the future because I believe windows
8 will be out a year after windows 7 because windows 7 will fail.

What do you think about this John Barnett? Could this be the case?

 

[John Doe]

A forgery.

From: "John Doe" <jdoe usenetlove.invalid>
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I just can't help myself thinking about the future because I believe windows
8 will be out a year after windows 7 because windows 7 will fail.

What do you think about this John Barnett? Could this be the case?