Retrieving emails and bookmarks from old hardrive.

Hi ya all,

My old lap top gave up the ghost recently after an unfortunate event with a cup of coffee landing on the keyboard! Fortunately, I salvaged the harddrive which a friend of mine fitted into an external case with a USB cable and all my data is intact.

I consider myself to be reasonably savvy when it comes to Windows but no amount of searching and Googling can give me an answer to how I can retrieve my old emails and bookmarks from the old drive.

Anybody got any ideas?

Regards
Viperfish

What email application did you use?

Favourites, if you have XP and use IE like me:

C:\Documents and Settings\***yourlogin***\Favorites

...just copy those files to the new system.

Emails (local) if you have XP and use Mozilla Thunderbid like me:

C:\Documents and Settings\***yourlogin***\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\***somegibberish***\Mail\Local Folders

These hints are all for XP:

As for Emails, if you use Outlook express go to:

C:\documents and settings\jake birkett\local settings\application data\

Also you might want My Documents:

C:\documents and settings\jake birkett\my documents\

and address book:

C:\documents and settings\jake birkett\application data\microsoft\address book\

and maybe even your desktop:

C:\documents and settings\jake birkett\desktop\*.*" "F:\BackupDynamic\documents and settings\jake birkett\desktop\

I have all these paths (and more) in a backup batch file which I click fairly often!

Lately I've been using Thunderbird but I do have some stored in Outlook Express.

OK. I've found Thunderbird emails
E:\Documents and Settings\Admin\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\q7txcyf3.default\Mail

I just need to find Outlook Express emails...

The main application Outlook stores emails in a pst file which is recoverable but express may store them in another file type.

Have a look as Jake has explained above in your documents and settings folder - look for microsoft applications ...

Oh and make sure that hidden files in your Tools/FolderOptions/View are set so you can see them!

IPete2.

yeah the folder I mentioned for Outlook Express is hidden. In that folder you have Identities and then one or more folders with cryptic names. These contain your outlook express identities with all the emails etc.

Thanks for your replies everybody. The Outlook Express emails seem to be hidden in cryptic files. But, I'll work at it and see how I go.

Atleast my Blitz files weren't lost, eh!

My path:

C:\Documents and Settings\Jake Birkett\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{F86E5059-1628-42AE-8AA8-8D1D06468278}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

has a load of .dbx files in e.g. inbox.dbx, sent items.dbx etc, these are your email folders in outlook express. Just setup outlook express again and then copy those files over your new "empty" ones in the same path, the long cryptic number in the path will be slightly different that's all.

Move to Thunderbird, it's much more secure and simpler to restore.

In out look Express, all you would need to do is
1) Locate the hidden folder containing the .dbx files
2) Launch Outlook Express, File -> Import -> Messages -> Outlook Express 6 -> Import Mail from OE6 store directory -> Point to the path where you located the old .dbx files

For the favorites, just copy the contents of the c:\documents and folders\username\favorites to the same folder on your new harddrive.