Backing Up the Address Book

We have found that of all the data many people have on their computers, some of the most important to many is the Address Book and Email Messages on their systems. The following instructions will help you save this valuble data!

Today we are going to explore backing up an Outlook Express Address Book. The first step is to export the Address Book to a file so that we can back it up to removeable media i.e. a floppy or a CDR. To do this we open Outlook Express > Tools>Address Book. This opens up the Address Book window, from here we select FILE >EXPORT > ADDRESS BOOK (WAB). Having done this we get a Save As pop-up where we can name the file. For today we will name it: AB103102.WAB. WAB is the extension given to the address book export and we will save the file in the My Documents folder. Pay attention to where you save this file as we will soon be backing up this file to a floppy. Now we have a copy of our Address Book sitting on our computer. What we want to do now it to make a copy of this file on a floppy or on a CD. Which we choose all depends on how big the file is, if it fits on a floppy or not.

Assuming that our Address Book is not too big, it should fit on a floppy. A quick way of saving this file to a floppy is to browse to the My Documents folder using Windows Explorer, highlight our file, which we named AB103102.WAB, Right-Click, scroll down to SendTo and then select the 3.5 Floppy(A:). You should see the floppy drive light turn on. You can check that the file has been copied by browsing the A: drive using Windows Explorer.

Restoring the Outlook Express Address Book
In the section above we backed up our Outlook Express address book. The reason we back something up is so we can restore it should it become lost, damaged, corrupted etc. Let us look at how we go about restoring an address book.
We made a copy of our backup file AB103102.WAB on a floppy last week. To restore this file to our Outlook Express we follow much the same proceedure as we did when we backed it up. First load Outlook Express.

Select TOOLS > ADDRESS BOOK > FILE > IMPORT > ADDRESS BOOK (WAB). You will now be presented with the familiar file selection menu all Windows apps use. Browse your way to the A: drive. (We are assuming that you have the floppy disk we made last week in the drive) and you should see the file AB103102.WAB. If you select this file and click on OPEN you will import those addresses into your Outlook Express. There is no real point in importing the file we made last week as those addresses are already in your notebook and each entry will only show once. Should you have to reload your OS though, you could restore all of your addresses this way.

Backing Up Outlook Express Message Files
Now we will look at backing up the message files in Windows 98. The message files are buried deep inside of Windows. Since Windows 98 allows multiple identities, each identity will have it's own set of message files. These files are found at the following location:

C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\

Inside the Identities directory there is a subdirectory for each identity. The name for the subdirectory is a long string of seeminly random numbers and letters. Here is an example:

{E8774EC0-A617-11D6-BF42-FA62A613662B}

Underneath each of these numeric names are two more subdirectories:

\Microsoft\Outlook Express

You will find the email message files inside the Outlook Express subdirectory. Simply backup this entire directory and you will have a copy of your email messages. You would have to backup each identity separately. Next we will look at where XP hides the same files.

Backing Up Outlook Express Message Files in XP
Now we will take a look at backing up Outlook Express message files in Windows XP. These files are buried deep inside of Windows. Each user will have their own separate message files to backup.

C:\Documents and Settings\Glenn Tooth\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\

Inside the Identities directory there is a subdirectory for each identity. The name for the subdirectory is a long string of seemingly random numbers and letters. Here is an example:
{E8774EC0-A617-11D6-BF42-FA62A613662B}
Underneath each of these numeric names are two more subdirectories:

\Microsoft\Outlook Express

You will find the email message files inside the Outlook Express subdirectory. Simply backup this entire directory and you will have a copy of your email messages. You would have to backup each identity separately.