i backed up what i thought were my email files before i formatted my drive now after installing all previous software i cant seem to open these backed up files ive tried word 97 wordpad outlook express but to no joy ive looked in the directory where i backed up from ie: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express\Mail and all thes files have an extension of .mbx or.idx any help would be most grateful

have you tried using Notepad yet? give it a shot! -kelly

Notepad will definitely open the files. Unfortunately the results won't be very pretty since they are Outlook database files. The Idx and mbx files you found are from OE version 4. OE5 expects it's files, by default, to be under \windows\application data\Microsoft\Outlook Express If you restore the files there, try and open them with OE. Also take a look at this link. http://chattanooga.net/~scochran/backup.htm AND, if you are still having trouble, maybe this program may help. http://chattanooga.net/~scochran/DBXtract.htm

You didn't say what version of outlook express you are using now. If it is ver 5 why don't you copy all the files to one folder. Open outlook express and go to import then messages then select the outlook express that you had and then browse will follow. Just type in the location and they should import to your current outlook express and you can read them.