Most email programs provide you with the capability of backing up your email messages. Since a lot of us would be somewhat lost if we lost some of the information stored in emails, it’s a very important feature.

In Outlook Express, you have the option of just backing up an individual message. Even though a message is stored in Outlook Express, this may not be enough especially if the message is of high importance. So for added safety, why not make an extra copy of that message.

To do this, open up Outlook Express. Open the folder that contains the email message you want to make a copy of. Also open Windows Explorer and open the folder where you want the copy of the message to be stored. Back in Outlook Express, highlight the email message and drag it into the Windows Explorer window (or onto the Windows Explorer button on the taskbar). A file will be created with an “eml” extension which is the backup copy of your email message.

Outlook Express does not have a backup function to backup all messages. However, if you use Outlook Express as your email client you may want to backup all your messages in the event that you need to restore them. The process is not as simple as it is in Outlook but it is certainly something you should consider doing. So here is what you have to do.

Before you can make a copy of your messages, you must first compact them.

1. Open Outlook Express.
2. Click File, point to Folder, and click Compact All Folders.
3. A window will appear informing you that it is compacting.
4. Once complete, your folders are saved to a file with a .dbx extension.

Next, you have to locate the correct file (with the .dbx extension) and make a copy of it.

1. Open Windows Explorer to search for the files with a ".dbx" extension.
2. In your search box type *.dbx. Windows will search for all files with this extension.
3. You may have several files appear. You want to backup the most recently modified. You can determine this by checking the date modified field.
4. Once you've identified the correct file, make note of the path. If you are using Windows 2000, it will be something similar to c: \ Documents and Settings \ [username] \ Local Settings \ Application Data \ Identities \ [identifier] \ Microsoft \ Outlook Express.
5. Browse to the file in Windows Explorer.
6. Right the Outlook Express folder and click copy.
7. Paste the folder in the location where you want to store the folder such as a CD or ZIP drive.