Important

You must remember that changing settings in the Registry may prevent Windows from starting, so please take care when making changes.

Always Backup first.

Making files accessible for Backup

The following instructions are for Windows 98 and Xp users.

Instructions

To make file backup easy, the first thing you need to do is create a Folder on your HD where you are going to keep the data you want to backup. For these instruction, create a New Folder (C:\DATA).
Then create Sub Folders as set out below.
I found that locating all the data files that change in a common directory (C:\DATA) would accomplish this. I placed each of the system data files under this directory. Below are the most common and others are available. New Sub-Folders are MSFax and OutlookExpress and should be added before copying the old folders to the common directory. Then you need only drag and drop the Common file to a CDR or CDRW to have a backup.

Folders

Your new folders should look something like this:-
C:\DATA
C:\Data\My Documents
C:\DATA\OutlookExpress
C:\DATA\OutlookExpress\Favorites
C:\DATA\OutlookExpress\Address Book
C:\DATA\OutlookExpress\Identities
C:\Data\My Fax
C:\Data\My Fax\MSFax

Original File Locations

The Windows Address Book is located at:

XP = C:\Documents and Settings\{Username}\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book
98 = C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book

The Outlook Express sent and received messages data is located at:

XP = C:\Documents and Settings\{Username}\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities
98 = C:\Windows\Application Data\Identities

Favorites is located at:

XP = C:\Documents and Settings\{Username}\Favorites
98 = C:\Windows\Favorites

My Documents is located at:

XP = C:\Documents and Settings\{Username}\My Documents
98 = C:\My Documents

MS Fax is located at:

XP = C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\MSFax
98 = C:\Windows\MSFax

Copy Process

Once you have found the files at the above locations :-
Copy Favorites, Address Book and Identities folders. to C:\Data\OutlookExpress
Copy My Documents folder to C:\Data\My Documents
Copy MS Fax to C:\Data\My Fax (I used DATA as my common file name)
The files should be in the new location before most of the following changes are made.

Changing the system default locations

You can use TweakUI ** to change the folder locations in the system for Favorites.
TweakUI is available from Microsoft through Powertoys for Windows XP. It is also available for Windows 98.
In XP Open TweakUI and expanded My Computer, go to Special Folders and clicked the PullDown.
Go to Favorites and select Change Location.
Change the location to C:\Data\OutlookExpress\Favorites and OK d out.

In Windows 98 TweakUI is Accessed through the Control Panel, use the General tab and change the locations in the Special Folders. Be sure that you have copied the old folder information in the new location first.

Change the Identities in Outlook Express; Tools, Options, Maintenance, Store Folder and change the path that precedes {Identities} with C:\Data\OutlookExpress. This will change the Registry entry but no Registry hacking is necessary.

Change the Registry entry in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wab\Wab File Name by changing the Data to C:\Data\OutlookExpress\Address Book\{Username}.wab in XP.
Copy the original data entry to a NotePad text file so you can go back if there is a problem.
(You can do a search of the registry for WAB to locate the Address file.) In Windows 98, I found the address book in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wab\Wab4\WAB file Name. You should always find the default setting in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft Directory of the registry so you can step forward to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER to start the search no matter what Windows OS you are using.

Right click on the My Documents folder on the desktop and select Properties. Change the Target of the Target folder location to C:\Data\My Documents.

Right click on the Start, Settings, Printers and Faxes and selected Fax and Properties. In the Archives tab change the Receive folder location to C:\Data\My Fax\MSFax\Inbox and the Sent folder to C:\Data\My Fax\MSFax\SentItems.
WinFAX 4.0 folders are not movable.

I changed the name of the old files by adding a .xxx to the name, rebooted and tested the My Folders, Address Book, Favorites MS Fax and Outlook Express Mail data to see if they all worked. I would suggest, if you are not sure of yourself, that the changes be made one at a time and tested so you can easily find any problems, if they arise. Troubleshooting will be much easier. I deleted these files with the .xxx suffix when I had tested all the changes. You can move them to a C:\Delete_Later folder for safety and keep a record of where you find the original file and the modifications you made if they are different from those listed above.

I have all of my Word, Spreadsheet and database files default-located in the C:\Data directory as sub categories. I.E. Word, Excel, Spreads, Database, Access. Ect. These settings are found in the various programs usually in a Options or User settings menu item. As an example, I put my MS Word files in C:\Data\Word. If you use Quicken or MS Money, after copying the files to the common directory, you need only open the program and use the File and Open the new location to change the location of where to find the file. This process will also tell you where your present file is located. Explore the file relocation options in TweakUI for other files to be relocated to fit your needs.

All you need to do now each time you want to backup your data, is, to drag and drop the DATA folder to a CDR or CDRW.

Users of Earthlink, Juno and NetZero have their E-mail, Favorites and Addresses in other locations.
This may be applicable to AOL also so this is not a complete list of locations.

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