Email migrations techniques for Outlook Express and Outlook Users

So now you have a brand new PC, or you are thinking too get one in the coming future, one of the equipment that you would need to think is “How to transfer the old emails from the old system to the new system?”

Do you know the necessary actions you should take in regard to email data migration? I don’t think so. So, not to worry, I am here to help you.  Firstly let me introduce myself, I am Stephen and I work as a Help Desk Analyst.

Yesterday, I was helping a customer to set up Outlook Express or Outlook on a new PC. So this article is inspired from it. Both the email clients are the widely used applications from Microsoft”.  Once we are finished with the setup in the new PC and client opens the Inbox the question he asks is) "Where is my old email data?"  And I reply in a simple way “In your old computer", followed by the natural question “How can I access them in the new computer?"

Cost effective way:

The easiest way to do perform this migration is to back them up to an external hard drive or a compact disc before you make the switch to the new computer and then copy them over to the new computer in the exact same directory.

Outlook Express to Outlook Express:

With Outlook Express your emails/email folders are stored on your hard drive in a directory that is buried way down deep in the Operating System. Outlook Express uses DBX file format to keep the data of connected user. Instead of me giving you the full path to get there, it's easiest if you have Outlook Express open, click on Tools then Options.

·         Once you reach there, Click on the Maintenance tab and then click on the Store Folder button. This will pop another window with the location of your emails. Using your mouse, highlight the path and then right click and copy it.

·         Then you click on the Start button, after that click Run, and then right click in the Open box and Paste the path. Click Ok.

·         This will open another window with your email files. Unless you have added other folders to your Outlook Express, the default folders will be here with a .dbx extension (Folders, Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, and Drafts).

Backup

If you are thinking to copy these files to a CD, you may proceed.  You can burn them at this time by using any reliable burning software.

To copy them to an external hard drive, you must now connect that device to your computer, create a folder on that drive and copy the files from the old computer then paste the files into the Email Backups folder.

Import

·         Once you get the files copied to the new CD or external drive. Then follow the below mentioned steps:

·         Open up OE and then click on File, Import and Messages.

·         This will open a new window called Outlook Express Import.

·         Choose Microsoft Outlook Express 6 then click next.

·         Click in the circle that says 'Import mail from an OE6 store directory'.

·         Click OK.

·         Then click 'Browse' and navigate to and select the directory you have saved them to. Click OK. The next window will give you a list of all of the email folders you have previously saved. Keep 'All folders' selected and click next.

·         This will begin the process of importing all of your 'old' emails into your 'new' Outlook Express. Once it has finished you will have all of your old emails back!

Outlook to Outlook

The tactic to save and then import your emails in Outlook is similar, but their file formats are different.

To start with, Outlook uses a file extension called PST or Personal Storage Folder File.

Export

·         Start on the old computer and with Outlook open,

·         Click on File & hen 'Import and Export'.

·         This opens the Import and Export Wizard. Choose 'Export to a file' then click next.

·         Choose 'Personal Folder File' here and then click next.

·         In the Export Personal Folders dialogue box you have your choice of what you want to do.

·         The easiest is to keep the default choice of just the inbox, but if you want your sent items and all the other folders, choose the top item (Personal Folders) and then choose the 'Include subfolders' option and then click Next.

·         The next window will have a default location listed 
C:Documents and Settings'your computer name'Local SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlookbackup.pst

·         I would suggest the same procedure as for OE.  Then click 'Finish' and let it do its thing. 
Once you have your PST files backed up, move to the new computer and the import process will again be similar to OE.

·         Connect your external hard drive to your computer or insert the CD into the drive.

Import

Open Outlook, click on File, then Import and Export. In the Import and Export Wizard, this time choose 'Import from another program or file' then click next. In the 'Import a File' window, scroll down and select Personal Folder File (.pst) and then click Next.

In the 'Import Personal Folders' window, click the Browse button and navigate out to the location of your backed up PST file, choose it and then click Next. Click 'Finish' and it will import all of your messages.

Outlook Express to Outlook

All the above points are for importing and exporting emails of same email client into another system. If you want to migrate to your email client as well with the PC version then the best option is to use any DBX to PST converter tool. You can use “Stellar DBX to PST converter Tool”.

I think now you can easily switch all your emails only if you are a technical person but for the non techie these ways can lead to big chaos. For those I would like to say don’t follow above mentioned points if you have a single doubt regarding the above mentioned DBX to PST conversion then lack of knowledge and technical details can harm your data.