Re: Incremental Manual Backup/Copy of Outlook Expess Messages Folder

For "But you would not know whether compacted folders had changed after the
last
backup but prior to compacting", here is a long-winded rephrase :

If automatic compacting has occurred between the previous backup and the
current backup, you would not know whether any of the dbx files had changed
prior to (but not after) compacting, by "Date Modified" alone, because the
Date Modified of all dbx files would have changed to the compacting date.

Is that any better ?

Thanks for all the other info.

Alan C. Brown
-------
"PA Bear [MS MVP]" <PABearMVP@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eWTxc3K6IHA.5012@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Please rephrase your last post/question.

If a folder is accessed (i.e., opened or written-to) during a given
session, the corresponding DBX file is Modified.

If you compact all OE folders
(http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact), all DBX files are
Modified.

General OE Caveats:

- Don't use Inbox or Sent Items to archive messages. Move them to local
folders created for this purpose.

- Empty Deleted Items folder daily.

- Disable Background Compacting [removed in WinXP SP2] and frequently
perform a manual compact of all OE folders while "working offline". More
at http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm

- WinXP SP2 only: Do not cancel Automatic Compacting, should it occur, and
do not attempt to close OE via Task Manager or shutdown your machine if
Automatic Compacting is taking place.

- Disable email scanning by your anti-virus application. It can cause
corruption (i.e., loss of messages), it provides no additional protection,
and even Symantec says it's not necessary:

<QP>
Disabling Email Scanning does not leave you unprotected against viruses
that are distributed as email attachments. Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect
scans incoming files as they are saved to your hard drive, including email
and email attachments. Email Scanning is just another layer on top of
this. To make sure that Auto-Protect is providing the maximum protection,
keep Auto-Protect enabled and run LiveUpdate regularly to ensure that you
have the most recent virus definitions.
</QP>
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2002111812533106
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/


Alan C. Brown wrote:
But you would not know whether compacted folders had changed after the
last
backup but prior to compacting.

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:
- the compacting process presumambly changes the "Modified date" of the
dbx
files to the compacting date

Yes, unless the folder associated with the DBX file has been accessed
(e.g., opened or "written-to") since it was last compacted.

Alan C. Brown wrote:
Thanks for the info/advice. It's made me understand the impracticality
of
incremental backups of dbx files.

When I say dbx files, I mean "folder" dbx files. I'm not trying to
incrementally backup individual messages within the "folder" dbx files,
but
rather the "folder"dbx files that have changed or are new (i.e have
been
created) since the last incremental backup.

I realise now that it would unworkable, I think (??), for the following
reasons:

- the compacting process presumambly changes the "Modified date" of the
dbx
files to the compacting date, and therefore any compacting that takes
place
bewtween incremental backups, would prevent me from using a "Modified
Date"
sort to identify dbx files that have changed since the previous
incremental
backup.

- alternatively I could compact all the dbx files to ensure that I can
identify the ones that have changed size since the last backup, but
identifying the changed dbx files by the changes in their sizes, would
obviously be very tedious, and more time-consuming than simply copying
the
whole OE message folder to the backup set.

For the time being I'll just continue copying the whole OE message
folder
to
the backup set .

DBXtract sounds like its more for archiving, which is something I'll
probably have to consider.

Alan C. Brown
--------------
"Richard in AZ" <me@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OQEZX3B6IHA.4596@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You don't understand the file structure of OE.
Your entire INBOX (all the messages) is a single file (inbox.dbx).
When you add or delete messages, this one file changes size, but there
is
no "new" file that an
incremental backup could identify.
Note that when you delete a message (in any folder), the size of that
folder's dbx file does not
change. You have to compact the folder dbx file to get back the
"byte"
space that was used by the
deleted message.

Recommend you look at buying DBXtract and use this program to backup
all
of your OE folders daily.
At the end of each backup, delete all the messages in OE.
(If you don't delete messages from OE, you will get them copied again
to
your backup)
Then use the backups as message history.

"Alan C. Brown" <acbrown@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uR24Mi85IHA.1592@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thank you for your reply, and all the useful suggestions & info.

I use the "backup" OE to restore all the OE mesages, after
re-installing
Win XP Pro, as I have recently done on both of my 2 laptops, by
simply
copying the the backup OE messages folder to C:\Documents &
Settings\My
Name\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{
alpha-mumeric}\Microsoft\Outlook Express
It works.

It takes 2 - 3 minutes to "backup/copy" the OE messages foder, which
admittedly is not that long, but if I can just copy any modified &/or
new
dbx to the OE messages backup folder, it would just take a few
seconds.

The info on importing and exporting the Address book and OE Messages
folder will certainly make life easier.

I'm afraid I backup to an external hard drive, and not to a CD-RW,
which
is probably not the best practice.

Will take a look at Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB).

Will implement the general OE precautions ASAP.

Alan C. Brown

------
"Bruce Hagen" <Nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uTBh7z05IHA.5108@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You could save individual dbx files, but it is a pain to put them
back
in
OE if needed.

I don't know why it should take a long time to copy the store
folder.
All
you need to do is Right Click & Send To a location of your choice.

~~~~

Old fashioned, simple way, to backup the Address Book and Messages
only.

Open the Address Book in the old identity and File | Export to any
place
on your HDD that is convenient for you. My Documents is fine.

To restore, open the Address Book and File | Import and point to
where
you saved it. To be extra safe, copy it to CD also.

For messages:

Right click on the Outlook Express folder, (Message Store), and Send
To |
My Documents. Copy this to CD also as an extra precaution.

To restore if necessary, in OE: File | Import | Messages. Select
Microsoft Outlook Express 6 and Import from an OE6 Store Directory
and
point to where you saved it.

If you use a CDRW, you can erase it and backup again using the same
CD
every week or when you feel it necessary.

~~~~~

But since this is a backup for emergency reasons, why not this?

This freeware tool backs up everything in OE in seconds. Disregard
what
is written in red. That is referring to a different program.

Outlook Express Quick Backup (OEQB):
http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx

~~~~~

OT perhaps, but since you mention the large size of the message
store.
The store folder itself can get very large and that is not
necessarily
a
problem, but be careful of individual folders.

General precautions for Outlook Express:

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually
become
corrupt. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and
move
your mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user
created folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is
feasible.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually
while
working *offline* and do it often.

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders
are
open. Then: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in
the
Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch
anything
until the compacting is completed.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a
redundant
layer of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of
problems
such as time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V
program will continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in
background
and leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"Alan C. Brown" <acbrown@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ekx4Cwx5IHA.5052@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I normally do a manual backup of the OE messages folder, by simply
copying the Outlook Express Folder (messages folder) in
C:\Documents
&
Settings\My Name\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{
alpha-mumeric}\Microsoft\Outlook Express, but it's a big, big
folder,
so
takes quite some time to copy.

To save time, could I simply copy the dbx files in the OE messages
folder that have changed since the previous backup, to the previous
backup copy of the OE messages folder, that is effectively giving
me
an
incremental backup?

Alan C. Brown



.

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