SOLVED Saving emails to an external hard drive

[Cindy]

When I copy the Store Folder for my email account to my external hard drive, why does the "Name" show up as some big log number followed by ".eml"? Is there any way a person can make them show up normally, like they do in your email Inbox?

 

[TrainableMan]

Please give us more information. Are you downloading the folders from internet mail (such as hotmail.com, live.com, outlook.com or gmail.com) or extracting them from an installed software's database (such as Windows Live Mail or Microsoft Outlook)?

 

[clifford_cooley]

There is an export/import option available with most clients? Copying the Store Folder is probably not the best way to backup Email.

 

[Cindy]

TrainableMan: I am shortly going to switch to Windows Live Mail. Right now I am using Windows Mail. I think these two would work the same though.

Clifford: Why wouldn't copying the Store Folder be good? How else would I do it? I create a LOT of folders in my email and I keep a lot of important information, which is why I back up continuously to my external hard drive.

 

[TrainableMan]

Emails are not stored as one file per email, they are grouped in Databases.

If you want to back them up to your external drive you should merely locate the folder where they are kept: Advanced > Maintenance, "Store Folder" Button. Create a Mail-Backup folder on your external drive. Then cut & paste the "Store Location" into Windows Explorer and drag all the files you find there to the Mail-Backup folder on your external drive.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Clifford: Why wouldn't copying the Store Folder be good? How else would I do it? I create a LOT of folders in my email and I keep a lot of important information, which is why I back up continuously to my external hard drive.

Email clients index all messages in multiple files. If the application is not used to manage the import/export, the index can get jumbled results. Copy an paste with Explorer instead of using the client doesn't make the appropriate changes to the index.

 

[TrainableMan]

If you copy the entire folder including indexes it should allow for a total restore back to the time of the copy, by simply replacing the "store location" with the Mail-Backup, but all newer messages since the last backup would be lost.

 

[Cindy]

I'm sorry but I'm lost. Right now I go to Maintenance/Store Folder, copy that path and paste it into "Run." Then I select all/copy and paste to a folder I have labeled "Email backup 5-15" on my external hard drive.

"Copy an paste with Explorer instead of using the client doesn't make the appropriate changes to the index." Does this mean, then, that there is no way for me to copy these over to the external so that they maintain the "Name" in their listing?

As far as total restore, I am using a program called Genie to back up my entire hard drive to an external. But I still like to keep this separate email backup I make. I have referred to these backups often -- when looking back for a key for some program I've purchased, for instance. It's just that I wish the emails would copy over onto the external showing their name rather than all that code stuff followed by the .eml.

 

[TrainableMan]

Emails are not maintained that way. They are lumped all together in databases. Even your deleted emails are stored in a DB. And the mail software hides transmission information and formats the mail to look all pretty but that isn't how it really exists.

And you can make a backup of the entire folder for disaster recovery (which is what I was trying to explain) but it is not meant to be readable so that won't suit your request.

You can also export a folder for transfer to another mail program. This must be what you did and it creates a single .eml file, whose filename includes numbers (likely some form of date/time) so that it will be unique in case you ever export it again. You can try to open the .eml file in a browser. If it opens it won't be pretty like it is in the mail software and if the file is too large your system may freeze up trying to open it. So again this is why it didn't meet your needs.

SO...
I do not know of any way to get individual files for each email. I don't know it can be done. Email is not pretty, the email software formats it pretty for you. And your best bet when you want to find things is to use the search features of your email software.

 

[Cindy]

OK - A sincere thanks for giving me some of your time and knowledge.

 

[TrainableMan]

You could try this Free EML viewer. It may make your EML output a bit more useful.

I scanned it for viruses and I installed it (no toolbars or other junk to avoid), but I don't have any EML files to test it with. I don't see a search option but the menu might change if you open an EML.

NOTE: Every time I opened the utility, it wanted to download & save a file. Just cancel that if you get it. It is simply these instructions below, but for some reason it doesn't realize the message is in the installation folder already ...

Process to view EML Files

• Click on any folder in the left tree to list EML files.
• Click on any mail from list to view its content.

 

[Cindy]

I figured out that if I hoover my pointer over the email subject it gives me the information. It's a little time consuming but it will work.