Following your advice in the SK Archive, I managed to backup my email mail store files from Outlook Express on my old desktop computer, and transfer the files to my new laptop. However, as I had already setup Outlook Express on the laptop some of the mail store files (e.g. Inbox.dbx, Sent Items.dbx, etc) already existed. When attempting to copy my backup versions of these files onto the laptop, a message appeared saying the file already exists, and I should choose another name. The mail store files for folders which did not exist on the laptop copied successfully, but they do not appear in Outlook Express. How can I copy all the mail store files across to the laptop, and make them appear in Outlook Express? Another question relates to transferring my personal data (e.g. Word, Excel files) between the two computers. I copied these files to CD, and then transferred the files to the laptop. However, all files now show the ‘date modified’ as when the files were copied to the laptop. How can I prevent this occurring? Finally, my desktop computer had the hard drive partitioned and I kept all my personal files on the ‘F’ drive. The people at the computer shop recommended this since it would be easier to backup the F drive should there be a problem with the computer necessitating a re-format. On the new laptop, all my documents are stored in the ‘My Documents’ folder on the system C drive. Would it be prudent to partition the drive and put all the ‘My Documents’ on another partition?

Dealing with your first question regarding your unsuccessful attempts to overwrite Outlook Express mail store files which already exist on your laptop, this is probably because you are attempting to overwrite the files while Outlook Express is open. When Outlook Express is open, the files are locked since they are in-use by Outlook Express. Therefore, the files cannot be overwritten at that time. So, close Outlook Express and then try copying the files again. Also, you should be aware if there are any messages in the laptop versions of the mail store files, those will be lost after overwriting the laptop mail store files with your desktop computer versions.

You must also be aware if you are copying the mail store files from CD, once the files are copied to your computer they may be marked read-only. This is because all files on CD are, by default, read-only. Therefore, you will need to disable the read-only attribute on the copied files, otherwise Outlook Express will likely have issues when attempting to read and write the files. To remove the read-only attribute, right-click on each file which has been copied from the CD onto the laptop hard drive and select ‘Properties’. In the window that appears, click the ‘General’ tab and untick the ‘Read-only’ box. Click OK.

Once the files have been copied, you will need to delete the ‘folders.dbx’ file. This file contains an index of all the mail store files, and their folders. Because you have just copied new mail store files over to your laptop, this index needs to be re-created so Outlook Express will see the new mail folders. So, delete this file and then start Outlook Express. The folders.dbx file will be re-created and will re-index all the mail store files. Now, all folders should be visible in Outlook Express.

Regarding your second question about the ‘date modified’ of the copied files, another reader asked a similar question a few weeks ago. Their question was slightly different, as it related to the date modified being changed to the date when the files were copied to the CD, as opposed to copying from the CD. I tried replicating your problem, by copying files from a CD onto my computer. In my experiments, the date modified property remained the same as on the CD, only the date created property changed to the date the files were copied. So, my guess regarding your situation is that the date modified is being changed when you copy the files to CD on your desktop computer. Then, when you copy the files from the CD to your laptop computer, the files have the changed modified date. So, although it may seem like the modified date was changed when copying the files from CD to your laptop, in fact it was changed when copying the files from your desktop computer to CD.

To check this theory, open the CD and check the date modified of the files on the CD. If they are the same date as when you copied the files to the CD (from the desktop computer) this is the explanation for the problem. In this situation, my recommendation is try using other CD writing software, such as Nero (www.nero.com) or Sonic (www.sonic.com) which should be able to retain the original date modified of the files.

Where the date modified for the files on the CD is correct, it seems the date modified is being changed when copying files to the laptop from CD. In this situation, I am unsure how to resolve the issue since the copying procedure is built into Windows so it is unlikely there is any way around this issue.

Finally, the computer shop did provide good advice about storing your personal data on a separate partition to Windows. As you mentioned, the premise behind this idea is that all your personal data is stored separate to your system installation. That means should you need to format and re-install Windows at some point in the future, you only need to format the system partition and reinstall Windows on that partition, while (in theory) keeping all your personal data safe on the other partition. The only potential problem I foresee is the process of repartitioning your hard drive. Generally you need to do this before anything is loaded onto the hard drive, since partitioning is considered a ‘destructive’ process (i.e. the process results in all data on the drive being lost). However, if you would like to repartition the drive without having to load everything again, there are some non-destructive partitioning utilities which can partition the drive without destroying any data. Probably the best software available is Norton PartitionMagic. This retails for about $100, and will allow you to repartition the drive without harming any existing data on the drive. However, I would recommend as a precaution you backup any data before attempting this procedure, as it is possible that things could go wrong resulting in all your data being lost. To this end, I would recommend you do this sooner rather than later, since at the moment you don’t appear to have much data on your computer anyway, so now may be a good time to do any repartitioning.

Should you decide to repartition the drive and, as a result, have setup two partitions (one for system, one for personal data), you can move your My Documents folder to the personal data partition. To do this, login to Windows XP and then go to the ‘Start’ menu and right-click on ‘My Documents’. In the window that appears, click the ‘Target’ tab. Click the ‘Move’ button and then navigate to where you would like to store your My Documents (e.g. F:AML Documents). If the folder does not already exist (which is the most likely scenario) click the ‘Make New Folder’ button to make the new folder. Once you have selected the folder to store your My Documents, click OK. All your My Documents will be moved to this new location, and the My Documents shortcuts will also point to this new location.