Many thanks Bushfiva, I have followed your advice and imported the folder into my desktop - but now can't read the e-mail messages. The string of numbers isn't the same as in my C drive Outlook Express and I don't know how to place them in the right place for them to be read, so I still can't read the messages, one of which is extremely important! A complication seems to be that the files are "hidden" and I can't seem to find a way of moving and pasting them.