Windows Easy Transfer and Email files

[590700]

Hello, first post here and a new WIN 7 user. I recently used Windows Easy Transfer (cable) to transfer all my files from my old XP Pro laptop to my new 64 bit Win 7 laptop. All my music, pictures and docs transferred easily, but for some reason I can't find my old emails or email contacts. They aren't showing up in WLM. I understood these would transfer from Outlook Express to WLM. Did I do something wrong or are they somewhere else I can't see?

Very sorry if this has been asked before, and I spent an hour searching the forum for an answer. I'm not too computer savvy, and could sure use some help from the experts here. Thanks in advance!

 

[richc46]

Go to panel on the left. Sent mail, recd etc.
At the very bottom of the list there will be a little arrow, click on it to expand the tree. There is something like old mail. You will know when you see it.

 

[590700]

Thanks for the fast reply Richard, but I don't think I have what you mention. Or am I looking in the wrong place?

The link below goes to a Screencast shot of the left side of my WLM account. I've blacked out the account names...

http://content.screencast.com/users...f0-474f-8ac1-9774df9b53db/2011-03-13_0057.png

EDIT: Hey! I just found them. I was looking at all the mouse overs, and I found one that had "Import Email" on it. I clicked it and it identified Outlook Express 6 as having files to import. These were my old emails!

EDIT again: While all my old OE emails are now there, I still can't find my contacts or old address book. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[roncerr]

Did you try clicking on the WLM "Contacts" link in the lower left of your screen shot? Look for for your old contacts in that section. If you can't find them you may have to import them using WLM "import" feature in the contacts page. First decide whether you want to import them into your "signed-in" contact list or your "not-signed-in" contact list, then sign in or not depending on that decision. (If you sign in your contacts will be duplicated and kept synchronized at the website "contacts.live.com".) As part of the import process you will have to navigate to the *.wab file in which Outlook Express kept all your contacts. If easy-transfer moved them over they should be somewhere on your new hard drive. Search for *.wab in the start/search box, right click, and choose "open file location" to see where it is.

 

[rw11]

I've got a different problem.
used WET to transfer my personal files to an external HDD.
Installed Windows 7.
Tried to get my account setting and email files back but can't find either of them.
USing 2010 office (Outlook).
any help?

 

[roncerr]

I've got a different problem.
used WET to transfer my personal files to an external HDD.
Installed Windows 7.
Tried to get my account setting and email files back but can't find either of them.
USing 2010 office (Outlook).
any help?

There is nothing easy about easy transfer. (Rant over.)

Do you still have access to the original Outlook program containing you email? If you do, you can export to an intermediate format that matches some other program's that can then export WLM type files.

The problem is that all your messages in Outlook are contained in a single *.pst file (Outlook's Personal Store). WLM keeps the individual emails each in its own *.eml file so the problem is to convert one *.pst file into many *.eml files. I've never tried this but a quick Google search came up with these ideas:
1) Install and use Outlook on Windows 7
2) Install and use the free Thunderbird (can import Outlook mail)
3) Use Thunderbird as the intermediate format to convert to WLM
4) Use something called "Mailstore" MailStore - Email archiving solutions
5) Search for "pst to eml" on Google

 

[rw11]

thanks for your quick reply,
1.I got outlook installed on Windows 7
2.I dont have the old outlook files anymore. I checked in the directory where XP would store them but WET has not copied them over for some reason. I have an old pst file from 6 month old and i've now imoprted those emails. So the last 6 months of email are lost.
You mentioned importing mail from outlook, but sure the WET has deleted the program files and working files so where do I import them from?
And where can i find those WLM files? Are they transferred back to my new PC again?

thanks

 

[roncerr]

Can you copy the PST file you want on to a thumb drive and then plug it in to your Win7 computer. Then do an import using the new Outlook. Navigate to the thumb drive or the place on Windows 7 Explorer where you moved it to, during the import process.

 

[rw11]

not sure if you understand Ron. I cant find the pst file. I was at the assumption that wet would have copied the office files over. I can not find them anywhere on the target drive and there is no possibility to search with the WET file.

 

[roncerr]

not sure if you understand Ron. I cant find the pst file. I was at the assumption that wet would have copied the office files over. I can not find them anywhere on the target drive and there is no possibility to search with the WET file.

What I meant was to find the PST file you want where ever it may be. If not on the target drive, what about the original drive? Do a start/search for "*.pst" on the old computer, if possible, since that is the one you want. You can't "search" the WET file directly, but you can search the new computer after you run WET on it to restore your data. If there is only one pst file from the new install of Outlook and the old one is nowhere to be found then WET does not work with Outlook: Windows Easy Transfer did not transfer my email - Microsoft Answers

 

[rw11]

well finally we have the answer. 1. You cant search in WET and 2. Outlook doesnt work with WET.
WET doesnot restore outlook files per definition. SO searching for PST files just comes up with the cleanly installed outlook. WHich means an empty pst file.

thanks anyway

lesson learned:
1. Dont trust MS per definition even it it guarantees to be working with it's own applications
2. Backup before you transfer or coppy anything.