Backup your mail folders

In Outlook Express, click Tools| Options| Maintenance| Store folder to see the path to the folder currently being used for your message store. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the Store. Copy the Folders.dbx file and all .dbx files to your backup media. It is not necessary to copy any .dbx file because OE will not import newsgroup messages, only messages in mail folders. You must include Folders.dbx in your backup or you will be unable to import the mail folders!

To restore your mail folders, open OE and click File| Import| Messages| OE5 (or OE6 if OE5 is not listed)| Message store directory, then browse to the folder containing your old messages. Do not copy the backup files into the current OE message store or the import will fail. If you saved your backup on a CD or a networked drive, you will need to copy the backup to your hard disk and verify that none of the *.dbx files are marked as "read only", or the import will fail.

Backup your address book

Open the Address Book and click Help| About Address Book to see the full path to the current *.wab file used by all your Identities. Find that file in Windows Explorer and copy it to your backup media. You can later import the backup by opening OE and clicking File| Import| Address Book.

I recommend that you create an emergency backup of the Address Book as well. Open the Address Book by double-clicking the *.wab file. Click File| Export| Other Address Book, then click on Text File (Comma Separated Values). Click the Export button, specify a destination folder, and click Next. Select all the fields shown for a complete backup, then click Finish. The resulting *.csv file can later be imported using File| Import| Other Address Book| Text File (Comma Separated Values).

If you use multiple Identities, you must repeat these processes for each Identity

There is also a free program available to do this. It is called OEBackup and can be downloaded from here:

http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx