mail files

Ok. Where do they hide the mail for outlook express? I have Windows XP.
I managed to navigate my way to my "identities" folder and found what looked like my mail but it was .dbx extension and I couldn't access it.

Can I just change the .dbx to .eml? or will that get me into trouble.

Or is this not the place to locate my mail folders in case I want to back them up or copy them to another location?


Are they in Personal Folders File? If so - how do I find this?
Sorry for all the questions but I've been at this for 40 minutes now.

Thanks.

 

Go to this guys site. Lots of info about OE.


Inside OE

 

Thanks.
Appreciate any answers to my questions from anyone else.

 

To find the folder where OE stores messages in dbx file, in OE go to Tools>Options>Maintenance tab and click on the "Store Folder" button.

The default folders have incomprehensible alphanumeric names.

I change OE store folder to a folder I make within the My Documents folder. That way, when I back up My Docs, I back up the dbx files at the same time.

No, you can't just change a file extension and expect that to change the actual format (arrangement of data within the file). Well, you can expect it...but it's not going to happen.

 

OK.
Is it easy to change store folder to My Documents and then back again?

 

It's easy enough to change...but the contents of the store folder don't move. So if you change it to my docs, the stuff in the old store folder stays where it is....which is all your email messages.

Change it back to the default folder from My Docs and the same thing...anything received or save in Sent Items will remain in the My Docs store folder.

You can, of course, import them back and forth but it does seem like a rather pointless exercise to keep changing the store folder around.