I have a computer running with Windows XP Pro/SP1 and MSN Messenger
6.1.  For various reasons I am going to reinstall the OS from scratch.
 But before I do, I want to know if there is a way I can back up the
Message History (logs of the chats I had) on MSN Messenger 6.1   I
have searched online to no success, and also have looked through
various folders on my hard drive but could not see where MSN stores
the logs.  Also I would need to know how to restore them after I
reinstall Windows and MSN Messenger.

Thanks in advance,
Derek

derek20la-ga:

MSN Messenger 6.1 stores your Message History in a user-configurable
location specified in the options for Messenger. To see where yours
is, please start up MSN Messenger, then go to the following menu
location:

Tools > Options... > Messages

At the bottom of the dialog window, you should see a section entitled
Message History. In this section, there is a checkbox to turn on/off
the message history feature, and another box that shows where your log
files are currently being stored.

Once you have seen where Messenger is storing the log files, you will
need to use Windows Explorer to locate this folder, and back up the
whole thing. The default location in Windows XP Pro is:

[System Drive]:\Documents and Settings\[Your Profile Name]\My
Documents\My Received Files\[your MSN username]\History

You will want to go to the 'My Received Files' folder, locate the
folder named after your user name, and back up that directory to a
safe location.

After you have finished reinstalling everything, including MSN
Messenger, you will need to do the following to safely restore the
history:

1. Start MSN Messenger and log-in
2. Go into Tools > Options... > Messages and double check that the
logging feature is turned on, and that the location is acceptable
3. Start an IM with an online friend, just type a few words and send
it; this will create the log file folder
4. Shut down MSN Messenger completely
5. In Windows Explorer, copy the saved folder into the new location,
keeping your backup copy just in case you mess this up
6. If prompted, you DO want to replace the existing files with the
ones you are copying back in
7. Start MSN Messenger again, your history should be back

You can also refer to this webpage for additional info:

http://ask-leo.com/archives/000082.html

I hope this helps!

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

Extremely fast and detailed answer!  Thanks =)