Outlook Express won't start. Can I salvage archived emails?

[ssoni223]

Help on this would be great, but this is a hard one...I'm not too optimistic ...

Running win2k prof. It was acting funny recently. Prob. some virus
So at one point., Outlook express refuses to open. Dozen reboots later, still won't open.

I usually export Outlook Express folders to regular Outlook .pst's and burn the file.
ButI have several months of emails stuck in there somewhere

I have since reinstalled my entire OS onto a diff. hard drive.
Does anyone know how I can ever get that data out , from my old OS's drive?
I wish there was even some raw ASCII somewhere that I could manually parse.
No idea where the emails are stored.

I have a lot of writing lost in there.

 

[sohcrates]

OE files are usually stored here:

"Windows\Application Data\Identities (who would have figured??)\some 15 string numerical number\Microsoft\Outlook Express"

edit: wow! found a good link . It tells you how to restore your .dbx files and everything! (after they're backed up from the above directory)

 

[ssoni223]

Great links,. Thanks.
I had to unhide hidden files to see the files !!
Then, I created a new identity in OE, and dragged all the folders into the new one.
That was the last thing I needed off my old drive.
Now I can ghost this brand new build back to the old drive as a backup

Thanks!