Outlook express transfer

[Maljonic]

Following on from the wireless ADSL thread, my mum has decided to just use the laptop and ditch the PC altogether, because it's rubbish, but she wants me to copy over her emails from Outlook Express and her addresses.

Now her computer was so crap and fooked up that I've had to bring the hard drive to my house to get all her stuff off it. Anyway I need to know how to get her addresses only, and where her emails will be stored - neither of which are quite where I thought they'd be.

I though it would be a simple case of copying wab.exe for her addresses, but now it's on my PC it has all my addreesses in it too. I have no idea where the emails are kept?

 

[phlash]

Outlook Express usually keeps all its data in <User>/Application Data/Microsoft/Identiies/<GUID>/ I have sometimes seen it elsewhere but only if the config had been messed with. Dunno about address book though - sorry.

 

[Maljonic]

I can't find the folder, I read something like this on a website. Do you know if I need to change any settings to see this folder?

 

[nath]

Tools>Folder Options>View>Show Hidden Files.

X:\Documents and Settings\<username of your mums account>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\<longassidentitything>\Microsoft\Outlook Express\herebethefiles.

Where x is drive letter of your mums hdd on your machine.

I'll edit this when I find the location of the WAB.


edit: wab location

X:\Documents and Settings\<username of your mums account>\Application Data*\Microsoft\Address Book\<usernameofyourmumsaccount>.wab

*note not local settings.

 

[Maljonic]

Thanks guys, that's great. Just need to find the emails now, should be easier now I have an idea where to look.

 

[nath]

Incase there's any confusion - the first section of the post is exactly where the e-mails are stored. They'll be a bunch of .dbx files.

 

[Maljonic]

Oh I see, got it. That's mint, cheers. You know some people are charging money for software to do this?

Edit: does that have accounts in there too, doesn't matter for this because my mum only has one, but I was thinking for me in the near future, I have about 15 and normally redo them all one at a time when I get a new PC, which I just did.

 

[nath]

Unfortunately not - with OE you can export the accounts to a .iaf file but you need to be running the system to do that. I've not managed to find where else they're stored. I think it's in the registry, so you'd not be able to get at that any other way without some *major* hassle.

Oh I see, got it. That's mint, cheers. You know some people are charging money for software to do this?

Don't get me started, I get incredibly fucked off when I see that someone has made a tiny program to do something extremely basic and expect you to pay like $50 for it. It reallllllllly pisses me off :\

 

[Maljonic]

I suppose it might not be so bad if you were doing this ten times every day, save a bit of time, but I know what you mean.