Importing mail and addresses from Outlook Express to Outlook 2002 (XP)

I have just purchased a Dell laptop which is running Windows 2000 Pro and Office XP Pro. What is the simplest way of importing all my addresses and mail from my old laptop which runs Windows 95 and Outlook Express 5? There seems to be an Import function in Office 2002 (XP) that should do this. Problem is, while I have a parallel cable that I have previously used to connect the old laptop to a desktop, I am having trouble getting the two laptops to communicate. Is there a way I can copy appropriate files onto a zip disk, then use the Import function in Outlook 2002 (XP)?

Your outlook express 5 addresses will be stored in a .wab (windows address book) file. Use the Find files utility to track that file down on your old laptop and copy it to your zip disk.

Outlook Express normally stores mail in the following folder in windows 9x.

c:\windows\application data\indentities\{a whole bunch of letters and numbers}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

Just copy all the files from there onto your disk as well. When you have imported them into Outlook XP on your new laptop, verify that everything is there before you blow away what is on the old laptop.

Sam, this should be no problem. What we will do as you have suggested is to copy your emails from the old laptop which runs Windows 95 and Outlook Express 5 onto the zip disk, and then from the zip disk to Outlook 2002.

1) From Outlook Express 5 simply go to File > Export > Messages. Follow the promts and save the file on the zipdisk.

2) Now from Outlook 2002 select File > Import > Messages. Choose Outlook express 5 from the menu. When asked for the location browse to the zipdisk and then follow the promts.

From what I have heard though some people have had difficulities exporting messages from outlook express, recieving an error along the line of 'Error has occoured while initializing MAPI'. IF you get this error method 1 will not work for you so we will need to approach this differently.

1) First thing to do is find were emails are being kept on the Win95 system. To do this fire up Outlook express, and head over to the Tools > Options > Maintenance tab. From this pop-up you are looking for a button called 'Store location'. Here you will be presensted with a rather long location, but you will need to note it done. This address should look along the line of 'C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{B74F22C0-55C6-11D5-8FF9-00500418DB9F}\Microsoft\Outlook Express'.

2) Using Windows Explorer or My Computer you will need to browse to this file location. Once there Copy the Contents of the folder onto the Zip Disk.

3) Now from Outlook 2002 select File > Import > Messages. Choose Outlook express 5 from the menu. When asked for the location browse to the zipdisk and then follow the promts and it will all ok.


Jess

This is to Scott and Jess, who both kindly took the time to reply to my enquiry. In the end, I actually found it easiest to save everything to a zip disk, through Windows Explorer in Win95, then import it all into Outlook Express on my new machine, and then import from Outlook Express to Outlook 2002. It sounds like a clumsy way of doing it, but went very smoothly. For some reason I had difficulty importing the saved files directly into Outlook 2002. Of course, I now have everything duplicated on my new laptop, but it shouldn't be a problem to track down the Outlook Express files and simply delete them from my hard drive. Thanks again to Scott and Jess for their help.