Exporting folders/messages from Outlook to Outlook Express

Hi...

I just got a new computer that came with Outlook Express. I had plain old Outlook on my old computer, and tried to backup all my old folders using File - Import and Export. I did Export to a File, then Personal Folder File (.pst). When I went to import that into Outlook Express, when it asked me which program it was coming from I said Outlook, and it gave me an error message. (I forget exactly what it was, I'm on the old computer right now.)

Anyway what I'm wondering is, is there another way to do this so that it'll import correctly into Express? I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have picked that "personal folder file" part.. someone told me something about it having to be an .mbx file, but I have no idea where to go from here. Any ideas?

Thanks a lot.

 

Does your new computer have Windows XP? If so, you can use the Files & Settings Transfer Wizard. You can read about it in the XP help file, which is by far the best help of any Windows OS ever.

 

Wow, I didn't even know they had that. I tried to transfer my old email folders using it just now, and it wanted me to use a floppy disk...there's no way I could fit everything onto there (I have a couple of years' worth of email, and it came out to be around 65 mb)...so I tried saving the file (the backup stuff that wizard created) to my hard drive, but the only ways I can think of to transfer it from there would be to upload it and then download it onto this computer (which I don't have enough space allowance to do), or save it onto a CD/zip disk which I can't do either. I suppose there's always networking or something, but I don't know if I want to mess with all that.

Anyway it's not the end of the world I guess, if I can't find a way to do this, but at this point (if there aren't any other ways to transfer it via that wizard), I just need to know if there's any hope for this .pst file I made originally, because doing anything between the computers by now is nearly impossible.

Can you think of anything? Or do you think I'd be best off just starting over?

 

Hook them together using a serial cable. How did you plan to transfer them from one to the other with the file export function?

 

I backed everything up on CDs. It worked fine in the past for switching from Express to regular Outlook instead, I just exported it to a file and then imported it into Outlook. Apparently it's not so easy to do vice versa.