How to backup mail accounts configured in MS Outlook and Outlook Express

In present time you are working personally or professionally, Emails are the most important medium for communication as most of the conversation take place through email exchange. Majority of the organizations use Exchange server for their email communication within organization and with outside world and home users mostly use MS Outlook or Outlook Express .With that much use of Emails in present, you cannot afford to lose even a single mail from your mailbox. Imagine in any circumstances if any mailbox gets deleted and due to which you lost access to those mails, then it would be like a disaster for all as complete communication process would stop.

So as to avoid this type of situation it is advised to take regular backup of mails so that in case something bad happens, mails could be restored from backup and regular tasks could be carried out without any interruption.

Why to Take regular Backup

By taking backup, data of Outlook, Outlook Express can easily be restored when the email client gets crashed due to any reason. Moreover, when a lot of email communications take place, PST file becomes large and get more susceptible to errors, so regular backup can help in this case. These are some other reasons why regular backup should be taken.

1.       Recovery of accidentally deleted items: In case of accidental mail deletion from mailbox, if you had taken backup mails could be easily and quickly restored.

2.       Save storage space: Sometimes PST files get quite large if you exchange lot of emails, then you can free that space by creating a backup and storing those files externally.

Techniques to take Backup 

There are a lot of techniques using which backup could be created. It could be done manually or by saving Outlook file to specified destination or you can use a lot of free or paid tools available to take backup of the data. Here are some techniques which could be used to have backup of accounts configured in MS Outlook and Outlook Express easily.

       ·        Manually copy your Outlook file

        ·         Import and Export Wizard

        ·         Using Personal Folders Backup Add-In
        ·         Go for a Third Party software               

Taking Backup manually:

You can create backup manually simply by copying particular files/folders to a specific destination. In outlook and Outlook express mail files are saved at a default location at computer. From that location those files could be saved anywhere and could be backed up for any disaster recovery.

Location of Outlook PST files: The default location for PST files in Outlook is C:/Documents and Settings/username/Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook/

Location of Outlook Express PST files: The default location for PST files in Outlook is C:/Documents and Settings/username/Local Settings/Application Data/Identities/Microsoft/Outlook Express

Import and Export Wizard:

By using this technique you can export entire personal folder or selected folder to any designated location. You just need to open outlook and from File Menu you can select Export to a File option and can choose which file you want to backup.

Steps to create backup using Import and Export wizard:

1.       Click on File “Import and Export”

2.       Choose Export to a file

3.       Choose .pst File (Personal Folder File)

4.       Select the folder to export from

5.       Choose destination location to store the exported file

Personal Folders Backup add-in:

ThePersonal Folders Backup download is a tool from Microsoft which creates copies of the PST files at regular intervals. User can integrate this tool with mail account and can easily schedule backup as per convenience.

Steps to configure personnel folder backup add-in:

1.       Configure Outlook with Personal Folders Backup add-in to run automatically on exit.

2.       Start Outlook.

3.       On the Ribbon, click the Add-ins tab.

4.       Click the Backup button.

5.       Click Options and select the .pst files that you want to back up

In case PST files are large, a lot of time would be wasted in copy pasting and also there is also risk of Data loss. So rather than creating backup using manual methods,you can use secure method for taking backup and can use a third party tools for quick and secure back up. One such professional tool for taking backup is Stellar Mail Backup Tool.

Creating Backup Using Third Party tool

Stellar Mail Backup tool takes backup of mail accounts configured in Outlook Express & MS Outlook with full security and further allow you to restore individual MS Outlook mails in PST/MSG format and Outlook Express mails in EML Format at your desired location.   

Features of this tool

·         Allow to take backup of multiple mail profiles

·         Provide an option to take Incremental as well as differential backup

·         Provides option to secure backup by using password protection

·         Enables you to take backup at scheduled frequency

·         Selective Restoration of the Emails from backup

Types of Backup

While taking Backup Stellar mail backup allow you to set the Backup type with differential and incremental backup options and allow easily taking backup and easy restoration

Full Backup: In this backup technique, complete copy of everything which you want to backup is created at desired location. But in this technique backing up is very slow and high space requirement is there. Moreover when next time you have to create backup again you need to remember the location of the previous file.

Differential Backup: In this backup technique, software looks at the files which have been modified since last full backup and creates a copy of the files  which are modified since the last backup.

Incremental Backup: In this technique, backup software creates copies of all the files which have changed since last backup of any type (which may be full or differential).It is the fastest way to create backup .But restoring from incremental backup is slowest as it may require several set of data while restoring.

Restoring data from the Backup:

Restore backup option lets you to restore all the data from backup with options such as complete restoration or Specified Mail Items restoration from backup at your desired location. 

Email Backup Scheduling Using this tool:

This tool let you to even schedule backup at your desired time with the specified backup frequency as per your requirements. Furthermore, this tool provides user options to set the Compression level for scheduled backup. So with scheduled backup option, you do not even need to worry about taking backup as data is automatically backed up at your scheduled time intervals. 

So rather than going for manual methods, third party tools are best for taking backup quickly and securely. Manual process are quite time consuming and lengthy.