By Cyrus Jackson (Contributed)

If you are not using a Microsoft Exchange server or a web based email then chances are you are storing all your emails on your computer. Sadly this can have two downfalls. The first is when you want to move your emails over to another machine. The second is the lack of backups, if your hard drive fails then all your emails are gone! This guide will show you how to move all your emails and related settings over to another machine and with that knowledge you will also be able to make regular backups if necessary.

Firstly you need to know where your emails and related settings are kept. There are three parts to a complete outlook profile:

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1. The profile settings (name, email address, server addresses) – These are stored in the registry, so I find it is usually easier to just write down the main settings for your account, take a note of the pop and smtp servers. Hopefully you will already have your name and email address! If you don’t have your password then you can use a free windows tool called Revelation to reveal the starred password stored in your email settings.
2. The emails themselves – These are stored in a pst file which is Outlook’s own database to store your emails and contacts. You can find these if you browse to your C: drive, then to documents and settings, then go in the folder that corresponds to your username, then go to local settings > application data > Microsoft. You should then copy the entire Outlook folder to another location (usb drive, network drive etc) if you cannot see your local settings folder then you probably don’t have system files/folders enabled. To see them click tools > folder options > view. Tick the box that says ‘Show hidden files and folders’.
3. The outlook cache – This stores your rules and the auto complete fields for when you start typing in email addresses. This can be found in Documents and settings > your username > application data > Microsoft. Then copy the entire outlook directory to another location. Don’t get the two directories confused with each one! Copy this one into another folder called ‘outlook cache’ so you know which one it is.

Ok you now have everything you need! Remember that if you wanted to take backups of your emails you would just need the above. You could even setup a batch file script to automate this but I won’t cover that in this article. Remember to close down outlook before copying any of your email files.

At this point you’re ready to create the new profile on the other machine. Load up outlook and set your profile up, setup using the settings you wrote down earlier. Once you have finished creating the profile, close down outlook before it has a chance to send and receive. Now copy the two outlook folders to their relevant locations (the one in application data\Microsoft is the outlook cache and the other in local settings\application data\Microsoft is your folder with the.pst file in.)

Now reload outlook and you’re done! All your emails, contacts and auto complete list’s should be there, just as they were before! If any of your rules aren’t working you might need to go into rules and un-tick the boxes that say ‘On this machine only’.

For more articles, guides and tips on everything computer related come check out my computing help site.

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