Email, has replaced the Royal Mail and possibly even the telephone as a means of personal and business communication and yet, the most commonly used application on your computer aside from the internet is probably one of the most confusing to backup and restore.

Why is email so difficult to protect?
Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express are complicated pieces of software running their own databases of all the emails you write, send and receive. In addition MS Outlook contains calendaring and contact information. Backing up the data from these programs is difficult because:

1. Most users have the Outlook running when they are using their computer and therefore a backup application must either be able to backup your emails while Outlook is running or it must wait for the user to shut down Outlook before it can back it up.
2. It is difficult to find the files which hold your emails. MS Outlook stores your Outlook Data in *.pst files. Depending on the number of Outlook profiles you have there may be more than one of these files.
3. Outlook *.pst files are installed in ‘unusual’ places on your computer by default. For example, MS Outlook installs into C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook by default.

What can be done to protect your emails?
Regular backups of your *.pst files wherever they are on your computer are a must if you to protect the information stored in MS Outlook. There are manual tools available which will do this for you.

The other alternative is to use BackupMyStuff. No need to try to find where your *.pst files are on the PC, the BackupMyStuff software will automatically find your *.pst files and back them up. EVEN IF YOU ARE USING OUTLOOK AT THE TIME. Your outlook files are stored in two data centers and are automatically backed up whenever a backup of your PC occurs. Even if you password protect your email data, BackupMyStuff will back it up for you. What's more, we let let you evaluate it completely free of charge for 15 days, so that you can be absolutely sure that it is the right solution for you.

How to restore emails?
With BackupMyStuff installed, recovering your MS Outlook *.pst file is the same as recovering any other file from your backup. Simply open the BackupMyStuff application, move to the ‘retrieve view’ tab, select the *.pst file you want to restore and click on ‘Retrieve Now’. The BackupMyStuff application will recover your email back to when you last backed up and put it back on your PC for you in the same location as it was originally or you can opt for it to be placed elsewhere.

Once the restore has finished, simply open up MS Outlook and your emails will be there for you.

If you chose to restore the file to a different location from the original one you will need to tell Outlook where the file is. You do this by;

1. Open MS Outlook,

2. Click on FILE, then on Data File Management and the following window should appear

Need more help?
Please call us on 0845 644 7522 or visit our Need Help page. You can also view complete list of Frequently Asked Questions.

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