Hi there, I recently had some computer difficulties and decided to change hard drives before an unplanned re-format. I wanted a smaller hard drive for windows and my programs and I wanted all my documents to be saved on a larger storage drive to avoid losing them with a crash. I had all my documents backed up but unfortunately I lost some important information that was saved on email in Outlook Express. Is there any way to recover this information and save it before re-formatting my new D drive and using it strictly for storage. Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

So your original windows install was on the larger hard drive (now D). Since you did not re-format it yet, then your outlook express data files are still there.

Open My computer, go to folder options under tools, in the view tab, check the "show hidden files and folders".

Now get to this folder:

D:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{SOMEIDSTRING}\Microsoft\Outlook Express.

There should be some files there. Copy the files to the same directory on your new Windows installation, (id string may be different). Now when you run outlook express, all your email items, sent, inbox, etc. will be there. Although email accounts will still need to be reconfigured.

Also, in this folder:

D:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAME\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book

Will be a .wab file which should contain your email addresses. Copy this file over too.

Hi there HVAC888, thanks very much for the information. I appreciate you answering so quickly. Regards, Dan.

Edit note: In my first reply, I used C: as the example, it should be D: in your case. Hope there was no confusion. :)