Ref : EHA/End User Self Help/Common IT Services setup

Ref: Email: Backup & Restore (POP)

.

Instructions for backing up and restoring Windows Mail data in anticipation of a system format or system migration

WARNING:     **READ THE FULL POST BEFORE DESTROYING THE DATA ON THE ORIGINAL PC. THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR BACKING UP YOUR CONTACTS ARE ONLY DEALT WITH AT THE END OF THE POST!!

.

First the Backup

Click on File > Export > Messages

Select "Microsoft Windows Mail" in the next Screen

Browse to a folder you have created to save your email data

Select "All folders" and click Next

Your Message folders export should have started

Let’s do the restore part now…

On the other computer, Click on File > Import > Messages

Select "Microsoft WIndows Mail 7" and click Next

The Next three steps are similar to that of the Backup procedure…

1. Browse to the folder where you saved your backup
2. Select “All Folders” and click Next on the following screen
3. Wait till the progress indicator finishes

Unfortunately, your emails are imported into a new folder called Imported Folder and you are left to manually drag your emails back to the appropriate folders. This is all well and good if you are restoring mail onto a system which already had email in it. For our purpose, we can do the following:

1. From the Imported folder, drag any sub-folders you had created into the main Inbox. If you had created many folders, you will now have many problems.
2. Once you are done, click on the Inbox inside the Imported folder. The list of messages should show in the top right pane.
3. Click on any message and then press ‘Control + A‘ to select all the messages. Click on on the highlighted messages and without letting go of the mouse button, drag and drop them into the main Inbox.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for the Sent Items folder and Deleted Items folder remembering to drag them into the corresponding Sent Items and Deleted Items folders respectively.
5. Once you are sure you have moved your email, delete the Imported folder. Go to the Deleted Items folder and delete the Imported folder from there too, otherwise it is quite confusing to have a folder tree inside your deleted items. In fact I have has users who have dragged data into those folders within the Deleted Items folder!!

Finally the contacts…

Backing up & Restoring your contacts is as simple as copying your files.

1. Go to your Windows Contacts folder. You can do this by clicking on your username from the start button, or typing in Contacts and pressing Enter in the windows search box that comes up when you click on the Start button.
2. Select them All by pressing ‘Control + A‘,  right click and copy them and paste them in an appropriately labeled folder along with the backup of your messages.

For restoring them, you do the same in reverse. That sums up backing up & restoring email in Windows Mail 7 on Windows Vista.

 

Comment on this post

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.