new window 7 laptop & email from old computer

vassar89 said:

I think that attachments are filed away by windows mail somewhere other than the easy to find "mailboxes" folder (which I renamed New Mailboxes) and is in my user app data. How will I get those into my new computer? I am going to use PC Mover, but am not sure how to make sure it get the attachments. Or should I try a flash drive?

I certainly don't think you should rely on PC Mover. It may work, but why would you entrust something valuable to chance?

Find out where your valuable stuff lives on your hard drive and then copy those folders manually to another drive.

In my experience, relying on a program or Windows Easy Transfer or anything similar to transfer data is just asking for problems.

At a minimum--make copies of the relevant folders to a backup drive. Then try PC Mover. If it fails, you still can get at known good copies of the folders.

I agree entirely with the above.

Call me paranoid if you will, but I use two external hard drives, which take incremental backups of all my personal data.

Digital photographs that I almost lost some time ago are also kept on DVDs - just in case. :)

well PC Mover copies from old to new computers, so I will have everything still on the old computer. I am not worried about it disappearing and will keep the old computer around for a while in case I find that something didn't get moved. I guess I was mostly concerned about finding the attachments and getting those moved. Is there an old post around here or a tutorial that discusses getting data from one computer to another in Windows Mail? The tutorial I found doesn't directly address attachments.

These links may help.

How to export e-mail messages from Windows Mail & Outlook Express into Outlook.

Windows Mail for Vista - Backup and Restore Data (Hermes)

Backup Windows Mail Messages and Contacts in Vista - How-To Geek

vassar89 said:

I guess I was mostly concerned about finding the attachments and getting those moved.

Have you looked for the attachments?

Are they here?

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail

Regardless of where they are, I would not rely on an application to get them properly moved. I'd rely on a manual process if I had to. That may entail an intentional overwrite of the new Windows Mail folder on the new PC. I have no idea as I avoid Windows Mail like the plague.

I read the three web pages posted by seavixen32, Thanks. The one from Microsoft says that the dates for all emails will be changed to the date that you exported them. This totally sucks since I have more than 4 years of emails that I sometimes need to review to verify when they were sent. I googled a few other things but having found a solution. Is there a way to get all these emails into a new program (I was thinking Outlook but am open to others) and preserve all the information in them especially dates?

Would moving them from Windows Mail, to Windows Live Mail to Outlook (or something else) work?

thanks!

You could try this tutorial.

Windows Live Mail - Import Windows Mail Messages

A couple of years ago, I went through a series of email application changes.

From Outlook Express to Windows Mail to Windows Live Mail to Thunderbird.

I had used Outlook Express for 10 years and didn't want to move away from it, but I was forced to because it is not part of Windows 7.

I stayed with Windows Mail for a week or two. Couldn't stand it.

I stayed with Windows Live Mail for a week or two. Couldn't stand it.

I have no problems with Thunderbird.

My email attachments survived the transfers.

Email migration is straight out of the handbook of the Marquis de Sade, with input from Alfred E. Newman, Ray Charles, and Helen Keller. It is diabolical and full of frustration.

Expect to cuss a lot. Backup the necessary folders because you may well destroy, delete, or corrupt your original folders in your attempts.

Good luck, you may need it.