Short Tutorial - Copying E-mail Message Files To A Backup Folder
A great deal of important information is contained within your e-mail messages—information that can be lost in an instant in the case of hard drive failure, computer viruses, or other accidents. You can help avoid these risks by backing up your e-mail message files on a regular basis and storing them to an external media such as a zip disk or CD-R.

To manually backup this information, follow the steps below for your e-mail program:

Copying E-mail Message Files to a Backup Folder Using ...
- E-mail Program: Outlook Express 6
- Computer Operating System: Windows XP
  1. With Outlook Express open, click your cursor arrow on "Tools" located on the menu bar and select "Options..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
  2. When the Options window opens, click on the "Maintenance" tab.
  3. Click on the "Store Folder..." button located in the "Cleaning Up Messages" section.
  4. When the Store Location dialog box opens, copy the file path.
  5. Click your cursor arrow on the "Start" button and then "Run..."
  6. Paste the file path from the Store Location dialog box in the "Open:" field of the Run window and click "OK."
  7. When the Outlook Express window opens, click on the "Edit" tab and then choose "Select All" from the resulting drop-down menu.
  8. Click on the "Edit" tab again, choose "Copy," and then close the window.
  9. Create a new folder by right-clicking on your desktop, select "New," and then choose "Folder."
  10. Name the folder (something like "E-mail Backup") and press the "enter" key.
  11. Open this new E-mail Backup folder.
  12. Once the folder is open, right-click in the empty space and select "Paste."
  13. The file can now be burned to a CD or copied to your external disk drive—such as a flash drive or external hard drive. Whichever external media you choose, be sure to keep it in a safe place.
Copying E-mail Message Files to a Backup Folder Using ...
- E-mail Program: Windows Mail
- Computer Operating System: Windows Vista
  1. With Windows Mail open, click your cursor arrow on "Tools" in the menu bar and select "Options..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
  2. When the Options window opens, click on the "Advanced" tab.
  3. Select the "Maintenance..." button in the "Maintenance and Troubleshooting" section.
  4. When the Maintenance window opens, click on the "Store Folder..." button in the "Cleaning Up Messages" section.
  5. When the Store Location dialog box opens, copy the file path.
  6. Click your cursor arrow on "Start," then "All Programs," then "Accessories," and then "Run."
  7. Paste the file path from the Store Location dialog box in the "Open:" field and click "OK."
  8. Click on the "Organize" tab and then choose "Select All" from the resulting drop-down menu.
  9. Click on the "Organize" tab again, choose "Copy," and then close the window.
  10. Create a new folder by right-clicking on your desktop. Select "New" and then choose "Folder."
  11. Name the folder (something like "E-mail Backup") and press the "enter" key.
  12. Open this new E-mail Backup folder.
  13. Once the folder is open, right-click in the empty space and select "Paste."
  14. The file can now be burned to a CD or copied to your external disk drive—such as a flash drive or external hard drive. Whichever external media you choose, be sure to keep it in a safe place.
Copying E-mail Message Files to a Backup Folder Using ...
- E-mail Program: Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0
- Computer Operating System: Windows Vista
  1. With Thunderbird open, click your cursor arrow on "Tools" in the menu bar and select "Account Settings..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
  2. When the Account Settings window opens, copy the file path listed in the "Local directory:" field under the "Message Storage" section.
  3. Click your cursor arrow on "Start," then "All Programs," then "Accessories," and then "Run."
  4. Paste the file path from the Account Settings window in the "Open:" field and click "OK."
  5. Click on the "Organize" tab and then choose "Select All" from the resulting drop-down menu.
  6. Click on the "Organize" tab again, choose "Copy," and then close the window.
  7. Create a new folder by right-clicking on your desktop. Select "New" and then choose "Folder."
  8. Name the folder (something like "E-mail Backup") and press the "enter" key.
  9. Open this new E-mail Backup folder.
  10. Once the folder is open, right-click in the empty space and select "Paste."
  11. The file can now be burned to a CD or copied to your external disk drive—such as a flash drive or external hard drive. Whichever external media you choose, be sure to keep it in a safe place.
Archiving E-mail Message Mailboxes to a Backup Folder Using ...
- E-mail Program: Apple Mail 3.1
-Computer Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5
  1. With Mail open, select the mailboxes you would like to archive in the mailbox pane on the left. Use shift-click (holding down the "shift" key while left-clicking your mouse) to select mailboxes that are next to each other and command-click (holding down the "command" key while left-clicking your mouse) to select mailboxes that are not next to each other. (Some keyboards have an apple icon on the "command" key instead of the word "command.")
  2. Click your cursor arrow on "Mailbox" in the menu bar and select "Archive Mailbox" from the resulting drop-down menu. A navigational window will appear.
  3. Choose a folder or other location to save your archived mailboxes, or create a new folder by pressing the "New Folder" button. The default location is the Documents folder but you can place your archive on the desktop or on other attached drives or partitions. For this tutorial, we will create a new folder in the Documents folder called "Mail Archive." Click on the "New Folder" button and the New Folder dialog box will appear.
  4. Type the name of your folder, in this case "Mail Archive," and click the "Create" button. The new folder will appear highlighted in the navigational window.
  5. Click the "Choose" button. Your mailboxes will be archived into the folder you just created. If you do the same archiving procedure next week, your old archive won't be overwritten. A new archive will be created with a number appended to the file name.
  6. The file can now be burned to a CD or copied to your external disk drive—such as a flash drive or external hard drive. Whichever external media you choose, be sure to keep it in a safe place.