For many computer users their email is their life; everything from business meetings to birthdays is saved in the email program. So the data in the email system is probably the most important on your computer.
Ideally, emails should be included as part of a
data protection strategy. You should back up all your
data, preferably on a daily or weekly basis.
Sometimes though it’s useful to have a backup of just the message stores. Particularly if you are copying data between computers. There’s a number of ways of doing this depending upon your email program and operating system.
Mac Users
A great little utility for the Mac is Email
Backup. This will backup Entourage, Mac Mail, Thunderbird and Eudora.
This is a terrific utility that saves a lot of time for Mac users.
The Leopard operating system has the built in Time
Machine feature which will backup all the system data. However backing
up the entire machine has its own issues of space and convenience.
Mac users should note that all their data files usually hide in the
Users directory on the system hard drive. If you backup that folder,
almost all of your files and settings will be saved.
Windows Users
Microsoft have a number of backup utilities built into Windows XP and Vista. These
work okay to a degree and there are all manner of third party backup utilities
of various efficiency and reliability.
In Windows Vista, all user data is normally saved in the User folder.
In XP, it hides under Documents and Settings. Backing up all the data
in these folders will save most data. Keep in mind a backup of the user
folders will usually report errors as some files will always be open.
Unfortunately there isn't a Windows equivalent of the Mac Email Backup
tool so users have to rely on the various methods in each of the Windows
email clients.
Outlook
Microsoft have a tool to automatically backup your personal folders. This is a
free download from Microsoft. The advantage with backing up the entire
personal folder is this saves all your contacts, calendar and notes along
with your emails.
Outlook Express
Microsoft don’t have a backup tool for Outlook Express users, preferring instead
to explain
where the files are kept.
However the useful OEHelp
website has an Outlook
Express backup tool. We haven’t tested this on Vista's Windows Mail
program, but the formats in the new system are the same as Outlook Express.
Thunderbird
Thunderbird too doesn’t have a built in backup. However there are instructions
on backing up at the Tech
Support Alert website.
Regardless of what way you backup, it’s important to check the backup
works and you can access it when it's needed most.
You should consult your tech adviser about a regular maintenance plan
that includes checking the backup routine.
