Importing OE6 Newsgroup files from another computer

  • Thread starter Thread starter E&N
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E&N

I have some Outlook Express DBX files that I copied *from the Identities
folder on an XP computer *to my Vista computer. Each one represents a
newsgoup that I participate in. Is there a way to bring them into Windows
Mail?

I know I could just re-subscribe to these groups but I have downloaded
messages that are no longer on the server and marked threads with "Watch"
and "Ignore" and I don't want to lose all my work.

E
 
Nope. Newsgroups do not import nor export. The system was not designed
with that function in mind.
 
Jim Pickering said:
Nope. Newsgroups do not import nor export. The system was not designed
with that function in mind.
Click to expand...

Jim can you (or anyone else) expand on this? I've got five years of saved
messages in OE6. They're in sub-folders ("2001 sent", "2002 sent", "2003
sent", etc) along with about 40 other folders of messages received from/sent
to specific correspondents. All of these are in a "Sent" folder that I
created immediately below "Local Folders".

I *am* going to be able to move all of this into Windows Mail when I install
it.

Right?
 
Opinicus said:
Jim can you (or anyone else) expand on this? I've got five years of saved
messages in OE6. They're in sub-folders ("2001 sent", "2002 sent", "2003
sent", etc) along with about 40 other folders of messages received
from/sent to specific correspondents. All of these are in a "Sent" folder
that I created immediately below "Local Folders".

I *am* going to be able to move all of this into Windows Mail when I
install it.

Right?
Click to expand...

Since Jim knows far more about OE than I do, I'm sure he'll be back to
answer your question. However, I felt it was important to give you a
warning. Keeping messages like that in OE is asking for trouble. You've
been very, very fortunate that OE's message database has not become
corrupted yet. Doing what you've done is one of the prime reasons that OE
becomes hosed. Please read this article:

The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express; Published:
November 18, 2004 By Tom Koch
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx

Even though it is an older article, it is still pertinent for OE users. I've
had the corruption happen to quite a few clients who keep tons of saved
emails in OE like you do.

Here's a direct link to Tom Koch's canonical site about OE:
http://www.insideoe.com

So if I were you, I'd use one of the backup programs Tom lists and get those
emails out of OE as a New Year's resolution/project.

Malke
 
Malke said:
Here's a direct link to Tom Koch's canonical site about OE:
http://www.insideoe.com
Click to expand...
So if I were you, I'd use one of the backup programs Tom lists and get
those
emails out of OE as a New Year's resolution/project.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warning though I am aware of the risk. I use "Outlook Express
Backup" religiously every Sunday (no pun intended) and keep copies of the
backup files in four different places. However what do you mean by "get
those emails out of OE"? If you mean export them, how? And where to so that
I'll be able to access them from WinMail?
 
Opinicus said:
Thanks for the warning though I am aware of the risk. I use "Outlook
Express Backup" religiously every Sunday (no pun intended) and keep copies
of the backup files in four different places. However what do you mean by
"get those emails out of OE"? If you mean export them, how? And where to
so that I'll be able to access them from WinMail?
Click to expand...

I usually have clients create email backup folders in their My Documents (or
wherever they are saving their data on their hard drive) so they get
included in the regular data backup routine. IOW, you don't save the emails
in OE itself; you save them on your hard drive. You apparently are already
backing up, although if I read your post correctly you are still leaving
the large amount of saved messages in OE itself. I wouldn't do this. I'd
delete them from OE itself and keep your archived copies elsewhere.

I would imagine that WinMail can open email messages by just double-clicking
on a message. However, since as I said I am really not well-versed in OE
issues, I'll leave the question of what WinMail will or won't do to others.

Malke
 
Local "Mail" folders can be imported into Windows Mail w/o problems if the
older DBX files are not corrupt. I've imported messages aggregating more
than 1 GB w/o problem and Steve has done the same with larger Store folders.
But, as stated, newsgroup messages do not import or export (unless they have
been "copied to" a local mail folder).
 
Hi, Bob.

As Jim said, NEWS posts don't get imported. But SENT ITEMS do, even if they
are your newsgroup posts. All "Local Folders" can be imported from OE6 into
Windows Mail when you follow the steps correctly.

In WM, I chose to Import from OE6, then I Browsed to my OE6 Store Folder.
At first, WM insisted there were no messages in that folder, but that was
because of UAC and permissions (which I never had to learn about before,
being just one guy with one computer and no network). Once I took ownership
of the OE6 files and gave myself permission, WM saw the .dbx files and
imported their messages into the new Message Store. Be warned, though: It
takes a LONG time! Copying a single .dbx file, even with a million
messages, takes only a few minutes. But copying those million messages into
a million separate .eml files in WM might take hours or even days!

During the beta period, I had created several OE and WM store folders. By
having each successive WM installation set to Leave messages on the server,
I was able to also download all of them into WinXP/OE6, which I continued to
use as my main mail program until Vista RTM. But that didn't work for Sent
Items, which were kept only in the store folder of the application that sent
them (OE6 or WM). I preserved the several successive Sent Items folders
that were created in WM during the beta and, once I had Vista RTM installed,
I separately imported each of those into my final WM Message Store.

With much help from Steve Cochran and from Jim, I've learned how to Export
the Registry keys from WinXP and Import them into Vista so that all my mail
accounts, sigs, rules, etc., are in WM and working. I can even share my one
Message Store between the x64 and x86 versions of Vista, using a batch file
to update the passwords when I dual-boot into the other platform. (32-bit
and 64-bit encryption is different and passwords have to be separately
entered for each.)

But I still had to patiently re-download all the messages for all my NGs
into WM.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista Ultimate x64)
 
Opinicus said:
Thanks for the warning though I am aware of the risk. I use "Outlook
Express Backup" religiously every Sunday (no pun intended) and keep copies
of the backup files in four different places. However what do you mean by
"get those emails out of OE"? If you mean export them, how? And where to
so that I'll be able to access them from WinMail?
Click to expand...


The only way to dependably save news messages in OE is to copy them to Mail
folders that you create for that purpose. This is true for both OE and
WinMail. I honestly don't think they're really worth it. I did it for
years and discovered that I never used the saved messages for anything. But
then, I'm too lazy to hunt through them.
 
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