Why didn't old e-mails transfer from old hard drive to new hard drive?
yorkiegirl12
Enthusiast - Level 1

In 2007, I accessed e-mails thru Outlook Express.  The new equipment I purchased last month does not support Outlook Express. I was told it was obsolete.   I think this is why e-mail saved from 2007 to 2012 did not transfer to new equipment.  I know years later, I began using Firefox as a browser and accessed e-mails from that site.  Firefox did transfer to new equipment.  So all I have is 3 months of 2012 e-mails to present.  Has anyone else had this problem when buying a new computer, i.e. losing old e-mails that wouldn't or didn't transfer?

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Re: Why didn't old e-mails transfer from old hard drive to new hard drive?
gs0b
Community Leader
Community Leader

@yorkiegirl12 wrote:

In 2007, I accessed e-mails thru Outlook Express.  The new equipment I purchased last month does not support Outlook Express.


Outlook Express was most likely configured to save your emails on your local hard drive.  This means that unless you take some action to move them to "the cloud" or your new hard drive, they will remain on your old computer.

When you access your email through a web browser, such as Firefox or Internet explorer, the email stays "in the cloud."  You can access your email from any computer any where with any web browser, as the email remains on the server and is not transferred to your local computer.

Do you still have your old computer with Outlook Express?  What operating system (i.e. Windows XP, Windows 7, ...) is it running?  I and others may be able to help you move your old email.

Good Luck.

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Re: Why didn't old e-mails transfer from old hard drive to new hard drive?
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

There are easy ways to transfer the messages, assuming you still have them on the old drive or they transferred to the new Drive but were not imported into a mail client.  But probably best to look at Microsoft docs on how to do the transfers. 

Microsoft's replacement is the FREE Microsoft Essentials mail (sometimes called Live mail)  and includes instruction on how to transfer mail.  Note that the mail client included in Windows 8/8.1 does not work with Verizon as they dropped POP client support.

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Re: Why didn't old e-mails transfer from old hard drive to new hard drive?
gs0b
Community Leader
Community Leader

@yorkiegirl12 wrote:

In 2007, I accessed e-mails thru Outlook Express.  The new equipment I purchased last month does not support Outlook Express.


Outlook Express was most likely configured to save your emails on your local hard drive.  This means that unless you take some action to move them to "the cloud" or your new hard drive, they will remain on your old computer.

When you access your email through a web browser, such as Firefox or Internet explorer, the email stays "in the cloud."  You can access your email from any computer any where with any web browser, as the email remains on the server and is not transferred to your local computer.

Do you still have your old computer with Outlook Express?  What operating system (i.e. Windows XP, Windows 7, ...) is it running?  I and others may be able to help you move your old email.

Good Luck.

Re: Why didn't old e-mails transfer from old hard drive to new hard drive?
yorkiegirl12
Enthusiast - Level 1

Thank you for your response to my question.  The PC store where i purchased the new Dell equipment (Windows 7 Inspiron 3000 MT)  also did thd the transfer.  They said this new program does not support Outlook Express, so only emails on Firefox transferred.

To answer your question, they disposed of my hard drive, but retain a back up of all my files for 30 days and then they discard it too.  I believe my 30 days are up.  I did call them while they still had the disk and they said there were no Outlook Express e-mails that transerred on it. The old operating system I used was Windows XP.  They never mentioned "the cloud".

Did I get ripped off?  I did pay for this transfer service.

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