motherboard crash, how to get email off hard drive loaded as slave in another machine

My mother board appears to have died. I have loaded the hard drive from that machine in another machine. I really need to export the old email folders from both outlook and outlook express so I can import into current machines email folders. Any help would be appreciated.

 

If it hasn't been saved to a PST file you're screwed, BUT your options are this... #1 if the machines are identical or at the least VERY similar you may be able to insert the Hard Drive into another machine and simply boot to it. If you can't you can slave the drive using jumper settings to retrieve any needed files. OR there's a device that'll allow you to externally power the drive and connect it via USB. I've got one I use for work.

 

i've had to deal with old outlook express mail databases and it's not really that hard.

you should be able to get at your data from your old computer. if you just want to migrate your mail data to a new computer, you can just find the directory where your mail is stored on the old drive (once you get it loaded into the new computer) and replace the new computer's mail files (.dbx's and some other files).

you can also export your rules and email addresses from the other drive's registry, too. all that stuff is in HKEY_USERS\#######\Identities\#######\Software\Microsoft\

#### is the weird serial number stuff


Internet Account Manager has all the email address info

Outlook Express has all the other info you'd need

note that the Store Root key in the Outlook Express\5.0 key is the location of your mail directory so be careful to make sure it's pointed at the right place.

to access these registry keys, you'd need to use the "load hive" feature in the registry editor and find your NTUSER.DAT (i think) file in your old drive's user area.


edit: dunno about outlook, tho -- only outlook express.

 

Don't need to mess with all that registry stuff for Outlook Express, even the addresses. Just find the folder with the data and drop it to the new drive where the mail files are after setting up OE.

 

i dunno if you get the addresses that way. the files in that folder are just the mail messages, no? maybe a couple other things, but the registry contains all the mail rules and account information. if you just want the mail, then yeah, you don't need to muck with the registry.

personally, i've got a few email addresses and i'm on a handful of active email lists, so my rules tell the system where to put things. it's easier for me to copy that stuff from the registry than recreate it.

 

Exactly. I did that with Mozilla's mailbox by simply dumping the AppData in the new folder.

 

thanks for the feedback, I was able to get all the outlook express mail folders from the old drive to the new with no problem.

 

Excellent.

 

Now... Time to switch to Gmail

 

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