Ken re the "smoke and mirrors can't friend waft away the smoke and polish up the mirrors? does he live far from Kent? seems to me, you have some nifty friends in an emergency Dorothy ----- Original Message ----- From: Ken Reid To: Jaws Users Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 10:25 AM Subject: [jaws-uk] Long shot - Outlook Express Tom, Afraid I can't offer a solution, but maybe some comfort. Recently my hard disk crashed, as a result of a corrupted boot sector - so I was told. A friend removed the old disk and installed a new one. Then put the old one in a "caddy" - not a tea caddy, but a box that turned it in to a external USB hard drive. Then another friend, more gifted in software issues, was able to extract the old in box, sent box etc, plus my old address book, and my IE favourites. Don't know how he did it, all a bit smoke in mirrors to me, but this proves it can be done. Hope you have success. Ken