How to Save Emails to an External Hard Drive

Back up emails to an external hard drive

Computers have been known to crash, so it's a good idea to save emails to an external hard drive. If you use an email program like Outlook or Outlook Express, you can use the export wizard to create periodic email backup files that can be saved to an external hard drive. For any email client, you'll need to locate your email data files and copy them to an external drive for safe keeping.

Instructions

1. Plug in your external hard drive and connect it to your computer.

2. Locate your email data files. Some programs store data in the application folder. Check your program's "Help" file if you can't find your email data. If you're using Outlook or a program with an export function, skip this step.

3. Make a file on the desktop to temporarily store your email files.

4. Open your email program and go to "File." Look for an "Export" option. If you see one, click to begin the automated export wizard.

5. Choose the files you want to back up. In Outlook you'll want to back up the ".pst" files. You can select all the email folders or just certain ones.

6. Export the email files to the backup folder you made on the desktop. If you're manually copying the files from the application folder, make a copy by right-clicking files and selecting "make copy" then drop them into the folder.

7. Take the backup folder you just filled with email data and drag it to your external hard drive. Open the folder to make sure all the files transferred.

8. Delete or move the temporary copy you created on your desktop.

References

• Free Email Tutorials: Backup Thunderbird Emails and Profile (and Restore from Backup)
• Microsoft Office: Back up Outlook E-mail Messages