How to save emails on old laptop

[ash635]

So I have an old Sony Vaio laptop which will no longer receive windows updates in the next month or so. I spoke to a computer tech who advised that I could update my laptop with a ssd and the new drivers which should allow me to receive the updates and continue using my laptop. He stated this would cost aprox £200.

I know how to save old pictures and documents on this laptop to an external drive, however the emails may pose a problem. I have a BT email account on my laptop and this also has sub folders with work related emails and other stuff which I do not want to lose. The tech told me that as I use windows live mail on my laptop it is no longer supported and will be difficult to save. He recommended an email program such as outlook.

So my question is twofold, firstly can I save all my emails and sub folders by saving them to an external drive, if so how?

Secondly, is there a way I can view my sub folders on my mobile phone emails and the BT web email?

The mobile phone email says its set up as IMAP and the laptop is set up as POP3.

Thanks

[Captain_Morgan]

Start with looking at the web portal for your mail system and confirming if your archive / folders are stored there or only locally on your system.

[ash635]

I have logged onto the BT web email and my emails are there, but not the sub folders which can only be viewed on my laptop.

Thanks

Ash

[Tesco]

Something here just seems off.
I don't see how upgrading to an SSD will allow you to continue to receive updates.
It is true, Windows 10 is end of life in a few weeks, but there are ways to continue getting critical updates for another 12 months. Generally from my own experience the only thing preventing an upgrade to Windows 11 is incompatible hardware in the form of older CPU's that don't have the ability to execute SSE4.2 instruction sets. Upgrading to an SSD will not change that.
Also 1TB internal SSD's are 60 - 70 quid so £200 notes seems a bit steep (yes, I except paid time etc).

Personally, I'd find a new "tech" guy or at least get a second opinion.

As for the emails one route I have taken is to clone a drive, install it in anew machine and then update the OS in place. If all goes well, you have a new setup with the old stuff available if not, you still have the original drive to try something else.

Also I believe there is a way or function in Windows Live Mail to export all of your emails (Google suggests some option). This might be a very large file but you may then be able to import that into a new email client

Edited by Tesco on Wednesday 10th September 13:37

[eein]

It is likely that you can move your folders in windows mail to sit under the inbox and they will then sync on to the BT mail server and you can access from elsewhere. Not 100% this works, but worth a try as it'd be nearly no effort if it just works.

[Metric Max]

Maybe open a Hotmail account (free), forward the emails to that (maybe have to be done individually) and then you can access them from another device
At least you would be able to see them on the hotmail ac and know they are safe

[Actual]

The suggestion to upgrade to a larger SSD may be because your current SSD is your C: and as the default location it is jammed full with emails and files.

I use Microsoft Outlook for emails and I archive whole years by using Outlook Data Files (.pst).

The .pst is created using File, Info, Account Settings, Data Files, Add

Make the copy by performing a drag and drop copy of email folders including Inbox and Sent Items to the .pst.

Once the copy had been created the .pst can be removed from Outlook (use the above sequence with Remove).

The .pst can be copied to an archive folder location.

It is very easy to open and verify a .pst using File, Open Outlook Data File (.pst)

[trebnamo]

ash635 said:

I have logged onto the BT web email and my emails are there, but not the sub folders which can only be viewed on my laptop.

Thanks

Ash

You mention logging onto the web email which must be through a browser like Chrome or Edge, but you say the sub folders are only viewable on the laptop - what software exactly contains the folders that are only on the laptop if it's not the browser?

Could be Outlook, Thunderbird (not the puppets), something else? If you were set up with POP3 then the emails get downloaded to the laptop, which would explain why you can only see them there. It will be useful to know exactly what software has done that so you can create an export .PST file or similar as mentioned above.

Some useful discussion here: https://community.bt.com/t5/General-email-queries/...

[sgrimshaw]

I'd install Thunderbird and follow the instructions on this site on exporting from Windows Live Mail to Thunderbird.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switching-thu...

[SteBrown91]

Tesco said:

Something here just seems off.
I don't see how upgrading to an SSD will allow you to continue to receive updates.
It is true, Windows 10 is end of life in a few weeks, but there are ways to continue getting critical updates for another 12 months. Generally from my own experience the only thing preventing an upgrade to Windows 11 is incompatible hardware in the form of older CPU's that don't have the ability to execute SSE4.2 instruction sets. Upgrading to an SSD will not change that.
Also 1TB internal SSD's are 60 - 70 quid so £200 notes seems a bit steep (yes, I except paid time etc).

Personally, I'd find a new "tech" guy or at least get a second opinion.

As for the emails one route I have taken is to clone a drive, install it in anew machine and then update the OS in place. If all goes well, you have a new setup with the old stuff available if not, you still have the original drive to try something else.

Also I believe there is a way or function in Windows Live Mail to export all of your emails (Google suggests some option). This might be a very large file but you may then be able to import that into a new email client

Edited by Tesco on Wednesday 10th September 13:37

I suspect the "tech guy" will just Image an install of W11 onto a new SSD and install it into the laptop. It will work however then when the next major W11 version comes out it will not upgrade as the hardware won't be compatible. So would require manual reinstall again.

Basically typical shoddy backstreet computer shop behaviour.