So what's the difference between Outlook and Outlook Express? - I hear you ask.

Outlook (icon looks something like this... ) is part of the Microsoft Office Suite and as well as handling email includes an Appointments Calendar, Todo list, Notes and other tools for managing yourself.

Outlook Express (icon looks like this... ) comes packaged free with the Windows operating system.  This handles emails and an address book only.

Outlook 2000 or earlier is simplest to backup, Outlook 2002 or above is a little more tricky. To check your version of Outlook click on Help then About Microsoft Outlook on the menu bar top right.

There are two stages:
1. Back up the Outlook Email Account Settings
2. Outlook stores all your messages, folders, appointments. todo, contacts etc. in at least one file ending with .pst (Usually named outlook.pst and archive.pst) So we will need to back up the PST files

Here are instructions for Outlook 2000 users first...
To back up the Outlook Email Account Settings:
1. Create yourself a new folder to backup to e.g. mail backup on your desktop

2. Open Outlook, on the Tools menu, click Accounts.

3. Depending on your version of Outlook you need to select the option to view/edit your mail account settings.

4. Click the mail account that you want to export, and then click Export.

5. In the Save In box, locate the mail backup folder on your desktop, and then click Save.

6. Repeat these steps for each mail account that you want to export.

7. Click Close

That's your Email Account Settings backed up

To back up the PST files:

1. Click Tools then Options

2. Then click the Mail Setup tab and click the data files button

3. Now click the Open Folder button and select any files ending with .pst

4. Copy them (Ctrl+C) then open the mail backup folder you created on your desktop and paste (Ctrl+V) into it.  (see this article on keyboard shortcuts)

That's all your Messages, Contacts, Appointments, Todos etc backed up.

Here are instructions if you have a more recent version of Outlook (above Outlook 2000) as you will not be able to use the techniques above.

To back up the Outlook Email Account Settings:
I suggest you create a notepad document and save the following five crucial pieces of information for each email account:
1.Email address 2.Incoming POP3 server name 3.Outgoing SMTP server name 4.Username 5.Password
Save the document in the mail backup folder you created on your desktop

To back up the PST files:
1. To copy the files you will need to close Outlook first (If you have any devices like a hand-held computer that synchronises with Outlook you will also need to disconnect)

2. Now click once on the desktop and press the F3 key to begin a search

3. Type *.pst in the search field (this will search for any files ending with .pst
 

4. Look in your local Hard Disk (C:)

5. Choose Advanced options and tick Search System Folders and Search Hidden Files and Folders

6. Now click Search

7. You should find at least one file named something like outlook.pst (and probably archive.pst)

8. Copy them by highlighting each one and using the Ctrl+C keyboard shortcut (see this article on keyboard shortcuts)

9. Now Paste them (Ctrl+V) into the mail backup folder on your desktop.

FINALLY VERY IMPORTANT - with both techniques above it is vital that you copy the mail backup folder onto a removable device like a Recordable CD or Zip disk and then store it away from the computer - preferably in another building.

Think the unthinkable - if you had a fire would your backups be damaged?