Office Live Team

If your looking for a cost-effective way to backup your e-mail (offsite) and you signed up for a Microsoft live mesh account, then you have what you need to get started.

The first thing to do is create a new folder, I called mine PST Files, right-click the folder and select add to my mesh. The folder will turn blue which indicates that it is ready.

The second thing you’ll need to do is go to the Microsoft web site and download the backup tool which can be found here : Outlook Personal Folder Backup .

Be sure to read through the Microsoft help section within your Outlook client. There should be decent directions on how this tool works within the help notes .This is is what help says about the backup tool within Outlook 2007 :

“Before you begin the backup process, you might want to check the size of your .pst file. If you have multiple folders in your .pst file, you must select the top-level folder to determine the total file size for all the folders.”

To use the file backup utility select file and then back up. If the backup utility does not appear to be installed try restarting your Outlook client. For Outlook 2007 users, which I am one, you’ll actually need to reboot.This is because the 2007 client continues to run even after you close it.

Now that you have the utility installed and it shows up in the file list, you will need to set up the backup process. In the top left-hand corner of the Outlook client, select file, then scan down looking for Backup, which will be just below the archive link.

Once you click the backup link and it will present settings pop-up where you can select options for the backup job. The goal here is to set your backup jobs to go into the live mesh folder. Select options, then personal folders and finally select browse and find your live mesh PST folder.

Now, you should be all set. Outlook will prompt you at the backup frequency you specified when you setup the job.Don’t forget to actually let it run. Remember, this is not totally automated as you will need to allow it to backup manually every seven days or at whatever frequency you set the backup job. Keep in mind, this will interrupt your ability to actually use Outlook. If you are willing to accept this minor inconvenience it’s a great way to have offsite backup of your e-mail.

Of course,if you’re using Microsoft’s office live,this really isn’t a problem because all of your e-mail is held online as well as in the client. Where it really make sense to use this process is to backup your POP e-mail accounts (like godaddy).

One last note, it’s always a good idea to test your off site back up by attempting to restore the PST file.That way you can be sure that your backups are working as expected.