Importing Old Backup Messages

jocaan · 5th March 2005

I have old email messages I want to read that were previously backed up one and a half years ago. Som of these old messages were backed up using various folder names that are not used in my current Inbox folders and some of the folder names are the same. Do all the old messages in the folders I previously used get dumped into my current Inbox with all my current folders when I import my old messages?
TIA, Frank C.

moboking · 9th March 2005

I assume that you are referring to Outlook Express. If that is the case, then the backups are simply copies of the original dbx files. These are not folders, but actual files. In that case, use Outlook Express import feature to import these old dbx files and they will append in your current Outlook Express program messages. However, to be safe, create copies of the current in-use dbx files before appending old messages from the backup dbx files because there is a chance that the old files may overwrite the new dbx ones.

jocaan · 9th March 2005

Right, I didn't mention this in particular but this is another aspect I am trying to avoid. My goodness, if you want to access a document, lets say in MS Word, that you backed up to disk, all you have to do is select the folder you made on a disk and then select the backed up document you want to read or print out, and there it is. Your current documents are not affected.
What good is a backup if it would possibly interfere with your current emails or your current documents?
Maybe I could open backup messages on another copy of Outlook Express on a different drive or partition? Or what if I would use another email program like Mozilla or Opera on the same drive to access, read, copy, send, or print my backups?
You mentioned files as compared to folders. Did you mean because these messages are files is why you cannot read them unless the messages are in Outlook Express on your C: drive?
TIA, Frank C.

surferdude2 · 9th March 2005

Get the free DBX Viewer and you can peruse those messages without importing them into your mailbox.

jocaan · 9th March 2005

OK, I downloaded DBX viewer. I opened the folder and pasted my email messages. A list of my messages in the folder showed up. I had 12 messages in the folder and each message is discribed. But the messages do not open. I highlighted them, clicked on Open in File, used the right mouse click to select open, nothing happened. ??? Do not know what I did wrong. Win Zip gave me some trouble but I finally was able to install.
Any suggestions?
TIA, Frank C.

**PeteC** · 9th March 2005

Start DBX Viewer

File > Open - navigate to the folder containing the *.dbx file(s)

Highlight a *.dbx file > Open

A list of the messages contained in the *.dbx file opens in DBX Viewer

Double click on a message to open.

Works for me!

surferdude2 · 9th March 2005

It's a double zipped program download so you have to go through both levels to get to the good stuff. When you finally get the last zip file opened, you will see the following files:

DBXView.xml
DBXView.exe
DBXView.pml
DBXView.txt

Save those and dump all the others. To run the program, double click the executable file. Then, from the toolbar, click File > Open > and browse to the location of your stored .dbx archives. Choose which to open and double click it. Voila!