EMAIL Backup
How
to back up Late breaking tip - click here:>> Slightly Easier
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Messages
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Address book
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Identities
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Mail Rules
1)
A BRIEF History of Email. If you have a computer - you probably
use email. As a matter of fact, some of you probably were using
email BEFORE you had your own computer - thanks to using the machine
at work, or a web-based email you could access through the public
library, etc.
In
1971 Ray Tomlinson of ARPANET sent the World's first e-mail, by
adapting an existing, popular, time-share internal mail program and
linking it to the new network file transfer technology that
underpinned ARPANET's further activities. The first message was
simply addressed to himself, sent from one computer to another, with
the text 'Testing 1-2-3'. The next thing he did was to address a
message to all ARPANET users explaining the availability of
'electronic mail' and giving instructions on how to address mail to
another user using the convention - users' log-in name @ host
computer name - which is still the basis of e-mail today......
..
...It
did not take long for e-mail to establish its own particular style.
It was more like a post-card than a letter, or perhaps more
accurately, more like an office memorandum (with its headings "To:",
"From:", "Subject:" and "cc:".
Anyway, whatever the analogy chosen, e-mail offered:
a
high level of informality (possible aided by the fact that all the
original users were already in a 'community', albeit a scientific
one)
a
tolerance of spelling mistakes and typo's (that would be totally
unacceptable in a formal letter)
a
terseness of expression and relative brevity of message (because, all
said and done, its still no joy to read screen after screen of
message... and because the ability to give each message a 'subject'
description, which could be read and replied to separately, made it
logic to send several short messages instead of one long one).
The
style of e-mail communication was one reason behind the success of
the new medium.
We are in the 1970s, when the stuffiness and hierarchy
associated with society in the 1950s had already been swept away. The
'bluntness' of the medium was no longer seen as threatening but,
instead conveyed a feeling of intimacy and immediacy. But there were
other advantages. For example, as long as the cost of keeping
computer links open were carried by the computing centre, it was a
much cheaper medium than the telephone.
Moreover, unlike a telephone, one could always keep a copy of
the communication. And, finally, although communication was virtually
simultaneous, the recipient did not actually have to be present to
receive the message.
from
History of the Internet
Chapter Three: History of Electronic Mail
(
http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/ivh/chap3.htm )
In
the begining, for scientists collaborating on projects, it was
probably never considered to save emails forever. One of the common
elements was BREVITY, not more than a screen full of text. (Although
it is true that they sent by whole papers on various topics to each
other.)
OUTLOOK EXPRESS may be the
most popular program for email today, so here are the 2 steps you'll
need to follow: 1) Copy files to a backup folder and 2) Backup the
backup folder
Late breaking tip - click here:>> Slightly Easier
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Open
Windows Explorer (Winlogo key + E)
Click
on C: File - New folder and then when it is blinking blue "new
folder" name it backup
Open
Outlook Express
Empty
your deleted items folder since you don't need to backup your trash.
Right mouse click on Deleted Items folder and then click on
Empty Deleted items folder.
From
the Outlook Express menu select Tools | Options |
Maintenance and click the StoreFolder button. You see a
dialog with the name of the directory that has your mail files.
C:\WINDOWS\Application
Data\Identities\{68588B00-245D-11D6-9B1A-A6273F426D4C}\Microsoft\Outlook
Express
Alt
+ Tab back to Windows Explorer and navigate to
that folder and click on it. click Ctrl + A to highlight all
the files. Click Ctrl + C and now navigate back to C:\Backup
Click Ctrl + V to copy these files. Notice at the bottom
5 files 10 MB (Disk Free Space 15 GB) We'll get to this
later.
Alt
+ Tab back to Outlook Express
Tools
- Acccounts - Mail - Export and navigate
back to C:\Backup Save This will save a yourname.iaf file
in your backup folder. (You will need to do this for each account
you have)
ADDRESS
BOOK this one is the easiest. File | Export |
Address Book
choose
Text File (Comma Separated Values) click on Export and fill
out the Save Exported File As dialogue box with
C:\backup\addbk.csv Click on Next and Finish
Close
Outlook Express
MAIL
RULES If you don't have any, skip this step.
If you DO have mail rules that you use, I recommend that you just Re-enter them in the new computer
Backup
the Backup
Alt
+ Tab back to Windows Explorer In the Lefthand
pane click on C:\Backup
At
the bottom of the window you should see something like 8 objects
55.5 MB (Disk Free Space 2.5 GB)
I
looked carefully at the folder and decided to delete the Sent
Items.dbx since I could probably live without having a copy of
EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER SENT.
Now
mine says 7 objects 531KB (Disk Free Space 2.5 GB)
YEAH!!!!
Put
a blank floppy in your floppy drive.
Highlight
all the files in the Right pane and Right mouse click - Send to 3
1/2" floppy (A)
If
your total is more than 1.4MB then you will need to burn to CD or
Zip Disk, or however you normally backup large folders.
To Restore to another computer (or new Hard Drive)
Restore
(if necessary): To restore the messages and folders, just copy
the *.dbx files back to the directory. You can selectively restore
folders by just copying specific files back. Alternatively, you can
use OE's File | Import | Messages feature to import one or more of
the backup folders.
To
Restore Accounts
On
the new machine - Tools - Acccounts -
Mail - Import
and navigate to A:\*.iaf
or
C:\Backup\*.iaf except you can't use the *.iaf, you must highlight
them one at a time to import them.
To
Restore Address book
File
- Import - Address Book
Question:
How many messages do you really need to save?
If
you cut down that number, you might be able to just backup to a
floppy and make things a little easier.
If
not, then hopefully, you have a CD-R or CDRW to burn CDs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The slightly
EASIER
way to backup email.
Starting on your Windows desktop. 
Click on the My Documents icon
When it opens, click on File
and then N ew and
then Folder
If you have a screen like this where you have a
new folder titled "New Folder", then click once on the new folder
and hit the F2 key and the name will turn blue.
Now type the word "email" and hit the Enter key.
NOW OPEN OUTLOOK EXPRESS
Now Tools - Options
Click on the Maintenance tab
We are now going to change the Store Folder to the email folder we just created.
Click on the button Store Folder
You will see this window with a LOOOONG path name
Believe it or not, we change that by clicking the Change button
You will see this screen that shows the "tree" view of the computer filing system and the graphical representation of the above LOOOOONG path name
Scroll down by clicking on the down arrow you see on this screen to the bottom where you should see the
My Documents folder. Double click that and you should see the Email folder.
Click on that and then the Store Location window should change ending in Email.
Click on the Email Folder
Click on the OK button
Now you have to close Outlook Express and then Restart Outlook Express in order for the change of storage to take place.
Once you have done this, you have accomplished Step 1 of 2
Step 2 of 2 is to backup the new store file titled "Email".
THE GOOD NEWS is that if you have a CDR or CDRW drive in your computer, all you need to do is take your
entire My Documents folder and drag this to your CD drive.
One easy way to do this is to open the My Computer icon and move that window far enough to the side so that you
can see the My Documents icon as well.
Now Click and Drag the My Documents icon from the desktop to the icon in your My Computer window that represents
your CD writer. If you have a blank CD (or CDRW) in your drive, then follow the instructions your computer uses to burn this file on a CD.
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GOT A NEW COMPUTER or do you want to now use a different computer for your email, then the process is very simple.
1) Make sure you DON'T have any email on the computer you are moving to that you care about. This is only a factor if you are sharing the computer with someone else who is checking THEIR email.
2) Follow the steps above about changing the STORE folder to the Email folder in the My Documents folder.
3) Start and close Outlook express to make sure that really is the current Store Folder.
4) Put in your CD and copy those files to your Hard Drive's My Documents/email folder.
5) If you were using a CDR and not a CDRW, then you need to double click on the My Documents icon on your desktop -
Double click on the email folder to open it. Ctrl A (Holding the Ctrl key, tap the "A" key) which highlights all the files in this folder.
Right Mouse click anywhere on the blue, left mouse click on the word "Properties" and UNcheck the box "Read Only"
6) Start Outlook Express and you should be SET UP with your email files, address book, etc. from your old computer.
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