How do I back up my email?

[Alex Franke]

I've backed up emails with previous versions of Outlook only to find that later versions can't recover them. So now I'm looking for a (freebie) way to retrieve and store emails from various POP3 accounts, PLUS my hotmail account (no POP3), and ideally some old email backups so I can have everything in on place and ideally searchable... something that's not a proprietary file format that will stand the test of time (like notepad and zip).

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Mr__Bill]

Go here:
http://alioth.debian.org/projects/libpst/
Download the utility, it converts or exports Outlook folders to UNIX type folders that are really just ASCI files that can be searched and read by many other programs. It's simple and clean. Later you could import the file into some newer version of Outlook if necessary or just open it in a text editor. Google desktop search will also be able to search them.

Another option would be to forward everything to a Gmail account and store it there.
HTH
Bill

[MikeR]

Switch to Thunderbird

Go to www.mozilla.com and download Thunderbird, then download the Lightning calendar extension and you'll have all the functionality of Outlook.

Then search for a program called Mozbackup. You'll be able to do incremental backups of all mail, calendars and addresses.

At the same time, you might want to consider changing over to Mozilla's browser, Firefox.

All are free and work terrifically well. If you like them, consider making a donation.

Cheers,

MikeR