Just to be safe, backup the new files first.

On the old machine, move all the mail to user created folders that have
different names than any on the new machine. This should prevent any
overwrite problems with mail. They can be moved to other folders on the new
machine later if wanted.

You can use your method, or if you only end up with a couple of dbx files,
you can just copy them to CD and put them on the new machined Desktop and
then do the following:

Open OE and create a folder with the *exact* same name as the one on your
desktop. ***Copy a message from any folder to the new one. You MUST do
this.*** Close OE. Go back to Windows Explorer and Click Desktop and drag
the folder from the Desktop to the OE store folder that you click on to
reveal the .dbx files. Prompt - "Do you want to overwrite......."? Click
Yes.

As for the Address Book. If you copy that to CD and then to the HDD of the
new machine, just open the new machines Address Book and import them. The
should not overwrite the current addresses, just add the new ones. I have 4
accounts and the primary account is the one that gets new addresses from
time to time. If I go to another account and import the Address Book from
the primary account, the new addresses are added and I don't lose the old
ones.

But like I said, backup the new files first, just to be safe.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"dresdenron" wrote in message
...
Did a backup and restore of all the OE files (add book, mail, etc.) from a
WIN 98 machine to a new XP machine. seemed to work O.K.

Now being asked to do the same for another user. Only problem is, this
user
had already started using OE on the new XP machine. If I do the backup
and
restore routine will the data from the old machine append to data in the
new
machine or over write it?

any special procedure for that?

Thanks

Ron