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University of Wyoming

Outlook
Backup Personal Folders

[pdf version]

Personal Folders are used in Microsoft Outlook so you can save e-mail messages on your computer’s hard drive and not take up space in your Inbox.  We recently were asked how to backup the information in personal folders and keep the original data in them.  Here’s how!

  1. Create a folder in My Documents called Outlook Backup Files.  This is where you will save your backup files.
  2. Open the Outlook program.
  3. Click File > New > Import & Export.
  4. Click Export to a file in the Import & Export Wizard window.
  5. Click the Next button.
  6. Click the Personal Folder File (.pst) option under Create a file of type.
  7. Click the Next button.
  8. Highlight your Personal Folders. You can also select individual folders under Personal Folders.  If you have subfolders under your Personal Folders, click the Include subfolders box.
  9. Click the + sign to expand the list.
  10. Highlight the folder you want to backup.
  11. Click the Next button.
  12. Click the Browse button.
  13. Navigate to your Outlook Backup Files folder in My Documents and highlight it.
  14. Click OK.
  15. Click the Finish button.

You can now copy your backup files to a zip disk or a CD if you have a CD burner available. The .pst file is usually a large file and generally does not fit on a diskette.

Ed.  09/2003

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Updated 09/15/2006