Solved Vista mail backup / export

[teejay]

Hi Everyone
I hope somebody can help me here...
I want to backup my emails in Win Mail (Vista home premium) - all of them so theres hundreds of them in dozens of folders I have created.
So I go file - export - messages, select a format, select an EMPTY folder on my 1TB external drive, then try to export.
I either get an error message telling me that some files may be corrupt, or that the destination folder may be too small.
Or if I select just a tiny folder to export, it says export successful, but it only exports ONE email - the top one in the list I think?
I really dont think I have corrupted files here - any folder I select to export seems to have a problem...
Any ideas would be very welcome, as my motherboard is flakey, and I want to do the backup ASAP before it 'flakes' again!!!!
Thanks very much
Trev in Cambridge UK

 

[Brink]

Hello Teejay,

Double check using the steps in this tutorial instead to see if it may help.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/90298-windows-mail-messages.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[teejay]

Hi Shawn
Thanks for the prompt reply here !
Looking at that, it seems like exactly what I have done, empty folder etc
I wonder if theres a problem with it being a USB external HDD or something - I just keep getting the error message, or the 'success' message, with only one dot.emy in the destination folder.
Maybe i will do a dsk chk to see if there is a problem, but as I said, theres about ten sub folders with probably 100 emails in each and I cant seem to export any of them successfully....
I'll get back to you (if I may) with progress on this - it's making me nervous that if my PC dies, I have no backup..............DOH!!!!!
Thanks again
Trev

 

[Brink]

After you have exported into the empty folder on your desktop, place it in a ZIP folder, then see if it will allow you to copy it over to the external HDD. I had someone the other day with this being the only way that they could.

 

[teejay]

Hi Shawn, or is it Mr. Brink ?!!!
You have saved my bacon, pork chops, and my sanity!
Thanks very much, I tried pointing it at an empty folder on the desktop, and hey-presto, the dumb thing could actually cope with that!!
Didn't do a zip, just let it export to the desktop folder, then dragged the folder onto my ext USB HDD - seems fine.
Only bug-ette seems to be that it has 'mis-named' some of my email personal folders e.g. my folder called '!!property cam letting' (the two !!s are to push it to the top of the list) has beed exported as ' !! property cam 2AF', which is a bit wierd, but I can live with it.
Thanks very much, you have really helped with this.
Respect,
Trev

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Trev. I'm happy to hear that you got it over on your ext HDD now.

Shawn

 

[teejay]

Cheers Shawn, really thanks.
How does this rubbish get released by MS?
Are we really in a world where we trade basic functionality like this, with the ability to see fluffy transparent windows and un-recognisable icons that look like toys for a 4 year-old?
Gees!!!
Or am I being a grumpy old git?!!! I am 50 ....
I still use Win 2000 NT, and have done for 8 years, without this nonsensical stuff.
Oh well..............Life, you can loathe it or you can ignore it, but you CAN'T like it......(Douglas Adams, a Cambridge man I believe).
Thanks again
Trev