How do I copy MSN mail folder from back-up CD to new computer?

StephenB

2010-05-17 00:07:06 UTC

You can recover these painfully per the instructions below. There is no way to
identify which of the saved messages are your Sent items until you go through
the painful recovery process and then you can move them as desired.
-steve

The email files are all stored within the user profile folder. For 9.0/9.1 and
9.5/9.6/10 they are slightly different. In 9.0/9.1 they can be found here:
C:\Documents and Settings\{userID}\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\MSN\db\
In 9.5/9.6/10, change \db\ to \db30\
In order to see the folders and the files within them, you need to set the
Windows Explorer options to show hidden files and folders and possibly system
files.
Inside this db30 folder, you will find files with an extension of .sdf - ignore
these. You're interested in the ones that look like: username-msn-com.1a0, 1a1,
etc.

and also within the folders \Mail(MSN user ID)\ with extensions of .000,
starting with stm0x...

You can copy and rename these files to have an extension of .eml.
Double-clicking them will open them in Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Windows
Live Mail, depending on what's installed. You can then move them to a folder in
OE/WM/WLM if desired for future access or import into MSN mail, or you can send
them back to yourself for filing within the MSN client program.

On 10/5/07, "ComputerGuy" posted this tip in the MSN Discussion newsgroup:
"...here is one little piece of advise. After renaming about 50 of the thousand
plus emails it hit to me to just go into windows explorer, tools, folder options
and add file the file extension of .000 and give it the same properties as a
..eml file thus saving me hours of having to rename all the files. Not really
needed when it is only a couple of messages but when there are hundreds or even
thousands of files, this will save much pain and suffering."

And, Earle H. offered an additional tip:
Open a Command Prompt (Start/Run/cmd) and navigate to the folder that you copied
the contents of the \db30 folder to and type the following command -

REN *.000 *.EML
And then press enter. This will rename all files in that folder with an
extension of 000 to now have an extension of eml.

-steve

Post by RobertT
I had a Dell Dimension 8300 computer with Windows XP for 7 years. I have
just replaced it with a Dell Studio XPS 8100 with Windows 7. I have always
had Verizon DSL with MSN Premium, and have always used the MSN e-mail. My
Inbox is of course a folder on MSN, but my sent e-mails I have always stored
in the Sent folder on my computer, because I have a very large number of sent
e-mails. Foolishly I suppose, I never backed that folder up, meaning that
there is no .MSNBAK folder.
I had my old hard drive (which I still have) backed up onto a CD, and of
course the MSN Sent mail folder on my computer is among the things on the
back-up CD. The folder is of course useless to me on the CD, because if I
click on it and it opens, I of course don't see my sent e-mails, but rather,
Is there a way that I can copy that MSN Sent mail folder from the back-up CD
of my old hard drive onto the new computer and then somehow import it into
MSN Mail on the new computer, so that I once again have all those sent
e-mails?

--
Stephen Boots
MVP Windows Live
Windows Live OneCare/Live Mesh/MSE Forums Moderator
***@mvps.org