If you’d like to backup your Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express e-mail there is a quick and easy manner in which to accomplish this. Email is important both in business and for our personal messages; if you don’t regularly backup your hardware and software you could be the result of a failure of either. However there is easy, safe ways in which to backup your email and contacts.

When you are doing a system rebuild, it may be necessary for you to restore your email and contacts immediately after. Another step you can take is to move your information temporarily to another computer while you do the system rebuild. One of the nice things about an Outlook backup is the accessibility of the unit and the friendliness towards your system. Not only is an Outlook backup free and fairly quick (all in all it takes about 15 minutes) but as it’s an essential component of your Windows based system, there is little chance for downloading corrupt files.

In just a few easy steps you can reinforce your Outlook 2003 backup. Begin by opening up Outlook and click on the Help tab and proceed to About Microsoft Outlook. You’ll then be taken to the place where Outlook stores its data (when you’re using Outlook without an Exchange Server) the Personal Folder file. Every Personal Folder file contains all Outlook folders including your Inbox, Calendar, and Contacts. Your folder may be solitary or it may include an additional archival folder . When you back up these folders you’ve backed up all your Outlook information.

That’s the easy part of backing up your Outlook. The more difficult task is locating your files. Begin by right clicking your Outlook Today icon found in your shortcuts or in your folder list and then left click “properties.” Once the Properties box is displayed click “advanced.” A box entitled “path” will appear next to a red arrow. This is where your Personal Folder file can be found; if you write this destination down you should be able to navigate to the correct folder.

Once you’ve located the folder you should see an Outlook’s file. It’s this folder you should copy and paste to a Zip disk or other backup material. Especially if you’re archiving email, make sure to backup the archive.pst file as well. There are a number of Outlook files that you should back up in addition to personal folders; they include .pst, .fav, .rwz, .nick, .oft, and .dic files and outcmd.dat, views.dat, vbaproject.otm, as well as signatures and any extensions you have loaded.

Outlook for XP is another beast entirely and while it is similar you should check out what your web resources say about that particular operating system. Outlook data restoring is simple, you should bear it all in mind while backing up your operating systems.