I'm about to reformat my HD and I got an external HD to put all my files in. Is there away I can keep everything in Outlook Express w/o loosing all my messages, contacts, settings, etc?

 

http://www.outlook-express-backup.com/

 

If you dont want to spend the money, just export the messages from the top level down or inbox if you only want inbox messages and then do the same for contacts. After this is done just copy the backup files to your external storage device. You can also point the store files to the backup device if you want to always have an up to date copy of all data. To do this open msimn (outlook express) and then go to tools and then options. On the options page open the "maintenance" tab and click on "store folder". Change this and I believe the next time you restart msimn it will move the data to the place specified.

 

The way I do it:

Backup Emails:

Backup all the identities. Eg:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\*.*

The Identities have a folder name like:

{3AF5C098-3F7F-436B-8D0D-96836BD66614}

Backup Accounts: Go to accounts and export them. Back them up.

Rules: I haven't found an out of the box solution for this one (unless you import them to Microsoft Outlook).

Contacts: Just export them into a file using the export tool.

Restore:

Emails:

Create a new identity, go to the folder of that identity and copy all the contents you backed up previously (eg identity {3AF5C098-3F7F-436B-8D0D-96836BD66614} )

Create as many identities (and repeat this operation) as you had before.

Accounts: Just go to accounts and import the previously exported file.

Contacts: Just import them from the previously exported file using the import tool.

And Voilá!

Outlook Express 4 folder files are different and will need to be imported into Outlook Express 5 or 6 (using the import tool).