Vista - Migration of WLM from one PC to another

I need to move a 3GB email database, settings and rules from OE6 on a Compaq
XP PC to a new HP Vista PC. I started by successfully upgrading to WLM on the
Compaq and installing WLM on the HP. How do I get all my email data correctly
installed on the HP (both PC's are on the same network.) Just copying the WLM
folder seems to create a mess (changed dates, folders, duplicate folders,
etc.).

What am I missing? I can not find Microsoft instructions anywhere for what
seems to be pretty common requirement!

If this is not a good idea, would you recommend migrating to Windows Mail on
Vista? If so, how? (I still have my original OE6 installation on the Compaq.)

Thanks for your help...

Hi, Chris.

Probably the biggest difference between OE and WLM is the database structure
for storage of the messages. OE always stored them in the Store Folder as a
single .dbx file for each of several mail or news Folders, with the
Folders.dbx file acting as the index. WLM stores each message as a separate
..eml (email) or .nws (newsgroup post) file. So simply copying the .dbx
files to WLM (running in either Vista or WinXP) won't work at all.

You will need to Import all the email messages into WLM so that it can
extract each message from the OE .dbx file into a new WLM .eml file. There
is a good bit of processing overhead involved in this, so 3 GB is likely to
take a long time, although the number of files (messages) is a more
significant factor than the sizes of the messages.

I'm a one-man one-computer kind of guy with no network and no knowledge of
networks. Even in my solo situation, though, there was some hassle in
Importing the messages from a hard drive on my one computer. For the first
time, Vista required me to learn a little about security and permissions and
give myself permission to see my own files. You probably are already
familiar with such restrictions and won't have problems with that. But if
the Import wizard tells you that there are no messages in the source folder,
you might need to give yourself permission to see into that folder.

To start the process, run WLM and click File | Import | Messages, select
OE6, then, if the wizard does not find your OE Store Folder, Browse to it.
This is the point at which you may be told that your selected source folder
is empty, as I said above.

The process of converting a single .dbx file holding the texts of 1,000
messages into 1,000 separate .eml files will take a while, so be prepared
for a long session. But it should need to be done just once.

Where the OE Store Folder and the WLM Message Store are on the same computer
when WLM is installed, this process of migrating mail accounts and messages
is usually handled automatically as a part of WLM Setup. But you probably
will need to recreate your Rules.

It's been several months since I last did my Import from OE, and that was a
couple of beta builds before the final version of WLM, so my memory of the
process might need a couple of tweaks, but I think the basic strategy is
still the same. (I also use newsgroups a lot and had a database of
thousands of newsgroup .dbx files in OE6. After waiting through the long
Import of all those, I realized that that was a waste of time. All the
imported newsgroup posts had to be discarded and downloaded again from the
news servers after the News Accounts were recreated and newsgroups were
re-subscribed.)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

"chris_MA" <chris_MA@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2F4400B0-5765-4162-9CC9-C8EBE3F38B3D@xxxxxx

You can try this..ymmv

Backup OE store to a different location(hard drive slave or external)
Open OE on the old machine.
Clean out any unnecessary messages
Compact OE
Close OE
Install WLM on the old machine
Allow WLM to find the OE accounts and messages
Once complete
WLM/File/Export/Messages and Export each email account to an Iaf file.
- Note: Export/Message only functions when exporting to a blank folder,
preferable on the same machine(not the network).
- copy the iaf file to a different folder
Copy the folder(s) to the network, then to the new machine.
Install WLM
Import accounts(*.iaf)
Import messages

Note: due to the size involved(3gb) which could also be pushing the
limits of OE and inherently yield corrupt stores(*.dbx file), it may
take quite a bit of time to export and import.

--
...winston
MS-MVP Windows Live Mail

"chris_MA" <chris_MA@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2F4400B0-5765-4162-9CC9-C8EBE3F38B3D@xxxxxx

Hi, Winston.

Interesting - and brilliant! Or, at least, very bright! ;^)

Having made the transition to Vista long before first joining the WLM beta,
it never occurred to me to install WLM on WinXP! That should avoid any
problems with having permission to Import the user's .dbx files. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

"...winston" <winstonmvp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OWiMmcOUIHA.5404@xxxxxx

Hi Chris, since you upgraded from OE to WLMail on your XP machine, you could export your e-mails, and accounts from WLMail on your XP machine, and import them into WLMail on your Vista machine. I think you indicated that you copied your WLMail Message Store folder from your XP machine to your Vista machine, but a full database recovery occurred. But you also want to import your rules and settings into your Vista WLMail. You could export the relevant registry keys from your XP machine then import them into your Vista machine. WLMail signatures however, do not import at all well into the registry.
I have not noticed any differences between the registry of WLMail in XP and Vista, so a backup of your XP WLMail registry entries should import successfully for your Vista WLMail (except for your signatures). Now, I believe you could successfully restore a full backup (registry + message store, including signatures) of your XP WLMail into your Vista WLMail using a neat little backup program called 'Windows Live Mail Backup' by StaticBackup ( http://www.staticbackup.com/windows-live-mail-backup/ ). I have tested this scenario, and the Message Store folder (in its default location) from my XP machine was restored to the correct default location for my Vista machine, and the registry keys and values (including signatures) were restored perfectly also, and no database recovery occurred. I think restoring the WLMail registry keys at the same time as the Message Store folder should ensure a database recovery does not occur. You should also delete (or rename) your Vista WLMail Message Store folder before performing the restore.
--
Cheers,
Peter
(Windows Vista Home Premium with Windows Live Mail 12.0.1606)
"There are more things in Heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Shakespeare
---------------
"chris_MA" <chris_MA@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:2F4400B0-5765-4162-9CC9-C8EBE3F38B3D@xxxxxx

Thanks R.C.

Lol..after doing a few friends' Vista/WLM machines the other way, it
finally dawned on me the easiest way was to present the data to WLM on a
Vista machine in WLM format.
In some cases if the account is a Live ID http account(live, msn, hotmail)
and in use in OE(Plus or grandfathered), the exporting of messages may not
even be necessary since the messages are on the Msn server. Importing the
iaf file to setup the account(or manual setup) may be all that is necessary.
Once everything sync's the messages should be avaialable. Note: Local
created user folders(external to the http account) still need special
handling.

--
...winston
ms-mvp windows live mail


"R. C. White" <rc@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:388396F5-9C04-46BF-85E7-708066242BD5@xxxxxx
Hi, Winston.

Interesting - and brilliant! Or, at least, very bright! ;^)

Having made the transition to Vista long before first joining the WLM beta,
it never occurred to me to install WLM on WinXP! That should avoid any
problems with having permission to Import the user's .dbx files. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

"...winston" <winstonmvp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OWiMmcOUIHA.5404@xxxxxx