For some people, Tony, for some people. Like CruzThs I've been running OE since as long as I can remember. I have messages since November 1999. How many? over 4700 (that counts all local folders, which are all maintained in the database). That doesn't count my Hotmail accounts that work perfectly whenever I use them (which isn't often anymore. I'm thinking of letting them expire). Mine have survived numerous formattings, OS upgrades, and computer switches, and still remains intact.

I was under the impression that all you need to do is backup a directory. It's easy to point OE to a new store folder, as long as you say you want to switch to that folder instead of just moving to it or however they worded it(which deletes all your files in the folder you're moving to).

I don't know, I'm lucky I guess. OE is pretty much the only thing I've never had problems with (knock on wood...)