Outlook Back-up and Transfer:
How to Back up and Transfer Your Old
Email to a New Computer
By Karen Porter
The
Administrative Professional
Job Performance and Career Success Coach
Assisting Administrative Support Professionals Since 2004
Before you switch to a new computer -- and if you
want to retain your existing Microsoft Outlook email messages -- back
up your Outlook emails to an external hard drive or portable flash drive
(sometimes called USB drives, etc.).
Then you can copy them from the portable device to the new computer hard
drive and open them from within Outlook. (Note that we're talking about
Outlook here and not Outlook Express which is different.)
Your Outlook e-mail is typically within a file folder with the extension PST which stands for
Personal Store or Personal Folders file. Essentially, a PST extension file is just an Outlook data
file. So your file folder of Outlook content might be named
PersonalFolders.pst on your computer. Or perhaps you have archived e-mails
in Archive.pst. Or maybe you'll see Outlook.pst. That's if you're manually
looking for it. But you're going to use the export/import wizard. I just
wanted to tell you that to take the mystery out of where your Outlook files
go.
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Two Quick Bonus Tips
Tip 1: You must be in your Outlook
application to open a PST file from your computer (C Drive).
Tip 2: You can have more than one
Personal Folder (at least in Outlook 2007, which is what I use at the
time of writing this). However, having too many Personal Folders
(also known as Outlook data files) open at once will slow Outlook
performance. So close any you're not using if you have more than one
Personal Folder to keep things speedy (or as speedy as they can be
with Outlook these days). |
That PST file is the file you ultimately will want to
export from within Outlook from your current computer so you can transfer
that file to your new computer, once you have that new computer set up.
If you know where to look, you can find these PST data
files on your computer (just like you can find any other file on your
computer). But it's probably easier for you to use your Outlook
wizard tools.
You can use the Export Wizard in Outlook on your current
computer to help you export your old e-mail files, which you will export and
save to the portable device. This is the same thing you would do if you were
making a backup of the e-mail messages. The Export option is usually located under the "File"
menu/tab in your Outlook application. Click "Export."
Then click Personal Folder File (.pst).
If you want to export just your e-mail inbox, follow the
Export Wizard recommendations (i.e. just keep clicking next). If you
want to take more with you, such as your subfolders of the Sent items and so
forth, choose Personal Folder File but also choose Include Subfolders (of
whatever ones you want that are offered there).
Continue following the wizard prompts to export your PST
file to your portable device. When asked by the wizard, "Save exported file
as," you will have to name your newly created backup file (perhaps call it
"email backup" or "email old" -- whatever makes sense for you). This is also
when you'll tell the export wizard to save it to your drive with the
portable device you've inserted (that external hard drive or USB/Flash
drive, which is my preference).
Once you have your Outlook PST file on the portable
device, connect that portable device to your new computer. Then open Outlook
on your new computer. The final step is use the Import Wizard. Import your PST file
per following the Import Wizard instructions and recommendations. So
basically now you're doing the opposite of Export. If you have trouble for
any reason or something occurs that I haven't covered here, just go to the
Microsoft.com Website and look for help under your version of Outlook there.
The Microsoft Website has a bunch of easy how-to instructions and tutorials
for several versions of Outlook.
As you can see, backing up and transferring an Outlook
file is quite simple. The hard part about Outlook is handling that
overwhelming and often clogged inbox of e-mail messages. I've got you
covered with tips to empty your inbox, or at least organize it, here: ***In-Depth
Special Report:
Empty Your Inbox Today--Administrative Professionals' E-Mail Load Reality and E-Mail Management Strategies***Click here for it.
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Karen Porter, The Administrative Professional Job Performance and Career Success Coach™