Confusing message. you don't say what service you're using ? You mention both Windows Live Mail and Gmail ??
I have an account with a local ISP, and interrogate their webserver, and my e-mails are automatically downloaded from their server to what was Outlook Express and is now Windows Live Mail, which I can keep on my computer for ever, should I wish to, and of course read offline, this is useful when travelling, a quick download from a nearby WiFi outlet ( sometimes piratted I will confess !! ) then back to the hotel or apt. to read offline at leisure - but, I recently had a problem opening Windows Live Mail, and the result was a new computer, on to which most of my data was transferred, documents, contacts, etc. but not my e-mails - that proved impossible.
With the new computer fired up, I intended to again download some e-mails that I assumed were still on the ISP server, but they weren't, and I recall having had spme issue back on June, when I was in the USA, so all those are now permanently lost.
It is the ability to transfer to external storage from my Windows Live Mail those e-mails that I think I will need in 50 years time, just like I can save Word or Excel or .pdf documents - when all present computers and systems have morphed into something totally outside my grasp on new inventions - that I seek. ( well, maybe not 50 years perhaps, but you get the point. ) If we are to operate a true 'paperless office' then it is essential that we can go to an electronic filing cabinet ( like a CD, or memory stick ) and produce age old documents. I have, for instance just handled my original birth certificate that was issued in 1934. What if my father had merely stored it on his computer, he is now dead, and any computer that he might have owned would be buried in some landfill rubbish dump now.
I can save Word docs. in this manner - why not e-mails ?
Mixture - the mention of Gmail wasn't intended to confuse, and yes, I also have a Gmail account but don't download it to my Win.Live Mail, I only take my ISP mail - my primary e-mail address - there, but some say that Gmail saves everything for ever and has so much storage available that nobody will ever need more, I believe they are telling me that I am currently only using 1.2% of my available storage on my Gmail account, but a) it's on the public Cloud ( pls. don't tell me otherwise) and b) never say never.
OverRun. Thank you, I'll investigate MailStore.
Capetonian. Doesn't Dropbox need an Internet connection ? I'm trying to find a way to store e-mails on my computer offline.