How to Backup Outlook Emails to Hard Drive with Attachments?

  

Rollins Duke   
Published: August 11th, 2025 • 9 Min Read

Microsoft Outlook offers the need to merge users’ information and store it in one major PST file that only they can access. The procedure of centralizing digital assets such as users’ email, contacts, errands, and schedule streamlines and simplifies users’ workflow, making a unified hub for both organizational and personal data information.

While having all the data prepared in one place is inarguable, it also forms a situation of failure like, the slow speed of the application, risk of data breach or losing information in one wipe. With Export Outlook emails to hard drive, users can manage their mailbox efficiently while still having a safe and easily reachable record of user’s information.

Reasons to Move Outlook Emails to Hard Drive

• Data Backup: User information in Outlook suspects to numerous data threats such as system failures, hardware crashes, malware attacks, and the list goes on. To eliminate such contingencies, users are likely to export Outlook emails to external hard drive and have a mode to easily access their essential data at any time.
• Managing Performance: As time passes by, a huge amount of emails clutter users’ mailbox, crossing the storage limit set by the email client along with slowing down the systems’ and the provider’s performance. To sustain a smaller mailbox within the storage limit, have speedy performance, and easy accessibility, users backup Outlook emails to hard drive.
• Professional Compliance: Professionals like lawyer or a forensic investigator, utilize hard drives for the collection of strong evidence that is at risk of digital attacks if archived on any email client. Additionally, numerous industries have a strict code of conduct that require organizations to preserve certain email records for a period of time.
• Offline Accessibility: Another reason why users export Outlook emails to hard drive is because storing data locally secures easy accessibility around the clock without users needing any internet connection.

Save Outlook Emails to Hard Drive Manually?

We will explore some of the tried-and-tested methods to download all Outlook emails with attachments to hard drive in PST, MSG, and PDF file formats. Some of these methods influence the email client’s in-built functions to move Outlook emails to hard drive. While the traditional techniques are perfectly suitable for a few emails that need to be stored in the local drive, it can prove to be gruesome to backup emails in large volume.

If the user wishes to save their data in standard and accessible file formats, then they can easily save Outlook emails as PDFs in Outlook. On the other hand, if users are going to utilize Outlook email client for a long time, then they can save Outlook emails as MSG and PST formats that are only accessible with Outlook.

#1 Method: Download All Outlook Emails with Attachments to Hard Drive

1. Open Outlook and click on the “File” tab.
2. Then, hit the “Open & Export” >> “Import/Export“.
   
3. Now select “Export to a file” and click Next.
   
4. Next, choose “Outlook Data File (.PST) ” option.
   
5. Select the required Outlook folders that you want to save.
   
6. Choose the desired location by tapping on “Browse”.
   
7. Press “Finish” to save emails from Outlook to hard drive.

#2 Method: Save Outlook Emails to Hard Drive [MSG]

For Individual Message

1. Launch MS Outlook and open the email message.
2. Then, choose File >> Save As option.
   
3. Thirdly, set your hard drive as the destination path.
4. Select “Save as type: Outlook Message Format – Unicode”.
   
5. Click Save to download Outlook email with attachments.
   

For Multiple Messages

1. Open your Outlook and choose a folder.
2. Press Ctrl + A to select all emails within a folder.
   
3. Drag the selected emails and drop them on a hard drive.
   
4. Outlook emails with attachments downloaded in MSGs.

#3 Method: Export Outlook Emails to Hard Drive [PDF]

1. Start Outlook and open a specific email.
2. Next, select File and then choose Print.
   
3. Then, select Microsoft Print to PDF as the Printer.
4. Tap “Print” and choose the local drive as the “destination path”.
   
5. Click Save to export Outlook emails to hard drive.

The Downside of Traditional Techniques

• Proves to be inefficient for archiving emails on a large scale as backing up thousands of emails one at a time is not at all practical and would take up plenty of time and energy.
• Using manual methods to save Outlook emails to external hard drive does not guarantee preserving the integrity of the data information such as sender/receiver details, read/unread status, folder hierarchy, attachments, and other email properties, making the recovery process challenging.
• Each and every PST file that has been created or converted through manual techniques is prone to higher risk of data corruption, which further hypes the risk of missing backups, losing track of files to be backed up.
• The traditional methods do not carry the option to schedule or automate Outlook emails to hard drive as the user has to keep manual records, making it an inefficient process.

Simple Steps Save Emails from Outlook to Hard Drive

1. Install and launch the tool, you’ll see the start-up screen carrying the instructions.
   
2. Then, choose the option of configured Outlook mailbox data or manually select Outlook files/ folders from the database.
   
3. Afterwards, choose email folders that you wish to save from Outlook with attachments.
   
4. The tool provides various saving options. Wisely choose the desired file saving type.
   
5. Next, pick a required file naming option for saving the output.
   
6. After this, browse to a destination path and hit Convert to start the process.
   
7. The process to backup Outlook emails to hard drive ends with a completion message.
   

How Is Software Better Than Manual Approaches?

• This tool is authorized to save all Outlook emails to hard drive from all configured profiles and folders.
• It comes with a variety of saving options like PST, MSG, EML, EMLX, MBOX, PDF, DOC, RTF, XPS, and the list goes on.
• The software provides various advanced filters for users to save Outlook email to local drive by date range, subject, sender, and receiver.
• The utility offers multiple renaming options to manage resultant emails and documents.
• Protects the integrity of the data by preserving the entire structure of the folder along metadata, sender/receiver’s details, Bcc, Cc, etc. to make sure a reliable archive of the emails.
• Unlike any manual method, the tool provides protecting features like password-protection and encryption, to keep the user’s backup data safe and secure.

Conclusion

The requirement to save Outlook emails to hard drive with attachments has become a need of the hour. Not only can users appropriately manage their emails but have a backup strategy during times of corruption issues. In this informative guide, we have explained the best possible methods (both for Windows and Mac OS) to archive Outlook emails to a hard drive with attachments. In terms of user productivity and email security – this tool is relatively easy to carry out.