It's always a good idea to make a backup of your personal or professional email for future reference. In business, it’s advisable to keep a record of discussions in case of a dispute. At the same time, in your personal life, email may be replacing pen-and-paper letters, and you may find it comforting to retain sentimental exchanges -- be they love notes or correspondence with an aging grandmother.

Backing up email in Microsoft Outlook can be done in a number of ways. Here are two options, both of which work for all recent versions of the software:

Backup Option No. 1: If you only want to back up a couple of mail folders, such as Inbox or Deleted Items, the easiest way is to simply open up Outlook and click on the left side of the screen on the folder you want backed up. Once a folder is highlighted, click the File tab at the top of the screen, followed by Import and Export. The last step is to select Export to a File and choose the option for Personal Folder File (.pst). You’ll be prompted to name the file (e.g., Deleted.pst) and choose where to save it on your hard drive (e.g., C:\Documents). You can do this for multiple folders within Microsoft Outlook, including Contacts, Calendar, Notes and Tasks.

Backup Option No. 2: If you’d like to back up all your information in Outlook, open Windows Explorer on your PC and do a search in the Microsoft Outlook folder (usually in C:\Program Files) for files ending in .pst. Highlight all the relevant files -- including "outlook.pst" and "archive.pst" -- and copy (don’t cut) these files into another folder on your hard drive, external hard drive or USB flash drive. For either option, when you want to import the saved files back into Outlook -- on the same computer or a new one -- click on the folder (e.g., Inbox), then select File, followed by Import and Export. This time, however, choose the option Import From Another Program or File and select the file you want to import (e.g., Inbox.pst).