We have windows vista and an external hard drive.
Is it possible to put all of our messages on the drive.
If so,how?
Ps don’t forget, no high tech speak!
Thanks.

Depends which email client you are using ?

Is siteground the client? Its a pop3 as well.

for thunderbird use the ImportExportTools Addon.

Is siteground the client? Its a pop3 as well

No, that’s your email provider, what program do you use for reading and sending emails ?

Dump your ISP-provided email and use something like Gmail / Hotmail / Yahoo etc. Then everything’s hosted in the “cloud” and you don’t need to back up anything. Also, when you change ISPs it’s not a major ballache.

If you want an email address more personal, you can register a domain name for a couple of quid a year, so you could be whatever@zippykona.com

If you’re storing stuff on the laptop hard drive it’s probably being backed up by your normal backup solution anyway?

The other option is to set your email client to never delete mail from the email server at your ISP – chances are you’ll never fill up the allocation they give you and it’s an auto off site backup.

The laptop has sucked all the mail from Siteground and everywhere else. So I want to keep messages somewhere before we start pressing buttons.
I have now ticked the leave messages on server box.

Its windows mail.

there’s usually a .pst file somewhere on your pc – these can be pretty much copied around at will.

They sit within users/username/appdata/…. so shoudl be being backed up when you do a normal backup.

You can manually copy the files to your external drive before makign any further changes though.

One solution is to get a free Dropbox account and have Dropbox sync the folder which contains your local mail cache….

If you use dropbox like that make sure you’re comfortable with their tools for recovering previous versions of files – if you delete stuff locally it’ll be gone from the dropbox online copy immediately too.

I wouldn’t use dropbox for that. Not only the above reason, but it’s also not secure. Mind you, storing everythign on gmail/yahoo etc. servers is not secure either.

edit: and if that file is anything like the several GB i had on a Thunderbird mail cache, it’ll probably hammer your DSL/Cable “unlimited” broadband limits.

Would make sure the backup script to a NAS or something grabs that file, though (or the equivalent for other mail programs).

Ask gchq/NSA if you can have a copy of your file .

As @wwaswas says – if you are using OUTLOOK (if that’s what you mean by Windows email) just search for .pst files and copy those to your backup device. Do you do a normal regular backup, as above if you do these files should be being saved as part of that anyway

I am also a big fan of having gmail (which I use)/yahoo/hotmail as all email is backed up anyway and you are not tied to your internet provider

If you use dropbox like that make sure you’re comfortable with their tools for recovering previous versions of files – if you delete stuff locally it’ll be gone from the dropbox online copy immediately too.

Luckily they let you go back 30 days and restore previous versions (with the free account). With the pro-account you can go back as far as you like (as a paid for option) and recover a version from years ago. I use it if I accidentally over save something when I forget to change the filename.

Not only the above reason, but it’s also not secure. Mind you, storing everythign on gmail/yahoo etc. servers is not secure either.

Nothing online is secure, your email providers let NSA / GCHA view all your mail, so the fact it’s stored on Amazon’s SSS severs makes no difference (as the NSA will have access to those as well).

If you do setup a backup or regular copying of the *.pst just be aware that the backup will probably fail if you have your mail program open. It needs to be closed for the file to be copied so try and set the backup to run when you won’t be using it. (in my experience anyway)

Agreed with @v8_shin_print – outlook should not be open

There’s a Microsoft add on/in for Outlook. This periodically backs up the .pst when you exit the prog (the .pst file is locked when Outlook is open). I’ve set mine to back to Skydrive once a week. It’s all on the ISP’s server as well if all else fails.