Transfer Outlook Express' address book to a new PC

Helpline Q&A Directory

I recently built myself a new PC, keeping my old 8.4GB hard drive to act as a Slave to my new 20GB model. I would like to export my entire Outlook Express inbox from the old drive to the new installation of Outlook Express on the new drive, but I can't seem to find a way of doing this.

Outlook Express mail files are stored in a folder whose location you can determine like this: click on Tools, Options, select the Maintenance tab and click Store Folder. Having determined where your current Outlook Express installation keeps its files, you should look for a folder containing a similar set of files on the old hard disk. You could then copy the contents of the old folder to the new one, or change the current Store Folders location to point to the old folder.

However, you should do this after setting up Outlook Express for the first time, since what it will do is replace your current mail folders with your old ones. If you've already used your new installation, add the contents of the old mail folders to the new messages that are present in your new folders. To do this, select File, Import, Messages. In the Outlook Express Import dialog box select Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0, if this is the version you used on your old computer.

Click Next then, in the 'Import from OE5' dialog box, select the 'Import from an OE5 store directory' radio button and click Next again. On the 'Location of Messages' page, browse to locate the folder containing your old messages. Click Next and the messages will be imported to the new drive. See also tips Move addresses between Outlook Express identities and Transfer address books between different email packages.