How to Transfer Old E-mail to a New Computer
Transferring your existing email between computers is important when upgrading your hardware, as it will allow you to continue your work without interruption. Basically, you must save your existing email folders, compress them into a smaller format and save them to a physical device, such as a USB drive, for transfer to the new machine. This is a relatively easy process that will take around 20 to 30 minutes.
These directions are written for those using Windows XP. If you are using a newer version of Windows, the process is similar but the wording may be different on your computer.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Right-click on your desktop and select "New Folder." Name this folder "email."
-
2
Click on the "Start" menu, open the "All Programs" list, and then open your email client (such as Microsoft Outlook or a similar program).
-
-
3
Highlight all of your important messages, then click on the "File" button and select the option to "Save As."
-
4
Select the option to save the emails as ".txt" (text) files and select the "email" folder on your desktop as the destination.
-
5
Open the email folder and highlight all of your messages. Right-click on the highlighted files and select the option to "Send To," then select "Compressed (Zipped) Folder" to create a single .zip file with all of your emails included. Name this file "emails."
-
6
Right click on the new "emails" .zip file and select the "Send To" option again. Select the drive letter of your USB drive as the destination. The files will be saved to the USB drive.
-
7
Insert the USB drive into the new computer after safely removing it from the old computer.
-
8
Double-click on the "My Computer" icon, and then double-click on the drive letter of the USB drive (this may be different from the drive letter on the old computer).
-
9
Double-click on the zipped folder to view its contents.
-
10
Highlight, drag and drop the contents of the zipped file to the folder of your choice on the new computer to complete the transfer process.
-
1
