I have just installed windows 7 64bit on a new hard drive.  I have installed windows live essential and set up windows live mail with 4 x imap mail accounts .   Apart from the odd  missing flag or watch status  they are all present and OK after the new hardrive.

If I log  in to my windows live account my contacts appear just as they did when i was logged out before the  reinstallation.  But I cannot find out how to save my contacts from my windows live ID into windows live mail so I do not have to be signed in.  I do not always have internet access and I often work on emails when offline and then send and receive when I get home so the need to be sined in is inconvenient and often just not possible, that is why I do not use webmail.  Previously my contacts appeared when I was both signed in and not, obviously having been sysnced with my online account. 

I cannot find any way of syncing them back so they appear in windows live mail  if I log out.   I have backed them all up  but last time I did that a year ago I lost all the contact groups and I have over  200 contacts in about 8 different work and personal groups and it took ages to sort them out again. 

can anyone help please. If I cannot "save" then to windows live mail can I atleast back them up in a didfernt way so the groups are preserved?

Kim Dixon