Outlook express archiving

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gbhall

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In my smallish company, for security reasons, only 1 PC is dedicated to internet / email, and is used by up to 5 different users. The problem is that even 5 users can, in 6 months, generate half-a-gigabyte of incoming emails, and since most refer to sales enquiries and orders, it is not the done thing (maybe even illegal in this daft country) to delete them.

The problem therefore is simple - how do we archive them, and keep the ongoing stuff to a reasonable size?

If any users can suggest some adequate software I would be delighted, my company would be grateful, and the world will be an all-round better place....

David
 
Well if in 6 months all you get is a half a gig, I don' think that is all that bad a thing. And I don't see why you couldn't just get a larger hdd to dedicate it to the emails.

I have not tried this program, but you can have a look here for a possible solution.
 
You could also copy the .DBX files to another location, or burn them onto a CD, sorted by account.
Then delete what you don't need anymore from the current .DBX files and compact the files.
Cheap as chips.
 
What about looking at the copies?

I thought of that, (copying the .dbx files to media) but the drawback is it is far from easy to see those emails again ! You cant restore them because that will lose all emails since the archive was taken. I can imagine you could restore to another PC, but I'm not sure if just dumping a .dbx file into another PC's email storage location makes it become visible ?? If so, that would be a solution, but a very inconvenient one.
 
Poertner's idea is quite valid, allocate more HD-space or get a bigger HD.
And also get rid of that crappy Outlook Express.
Instead, install Mozilla's Thunderbird. This can import all your OE files and settings and is a lot less susceptible to various worms, virii and other anti-M$ nasties.

Take the time and split up your emails in sub-folders such as 2004-05-John, 2004-06-John, etc. or 2004-01-06-John, 2004-07-12-John etc. Keep the year first, then the month, then the name, Outlook/Thunderbird will automatically sort them.

Just create the new folders, then select the messages from the old folder and "move" them to the new folders.
Half an hour's work for a knowledgeable person, and you are done. You can then still burn them onto CD and delete the folders. At any given time you can restore them without overwriting existing data.
 
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