What can I do about Outlook's huge PST?

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When you import from Eduora to Outlook 2003, If the email size in Eduora is more than 2 GB, Outlook doesnot imports it.

So I Think still Outlook 2003 has limitation of 2GB

Hello,

I have a pst file which was used in outlook 2000 and has reached the 2 GB limit(2.06GB, to be precise) and when I try to open the pst in outlook, I get the error message,

"Errors have been detected in the file . Quit all mail-enabled applications, and then use the Inbox Repair Tool"

I have tried using the scanpst.exe file several times, no luck.

I have tried to create a new pst and then in outlook, clicked on File>import and export and then tried opening the corrupt pst in question, with the intention of moving the subfolders of the corrupt pst one at a time to the new pst and still the same error persists.

I tried using Oversized PST and OST Crop Tool(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q296088) and ran the pst2gb.exe file and then ran the scanpst.exe file and still no luck.

I have tried all the above steps in outlook 2002 as well and still no go.

Then, I came to know that outlook 2003 does not have the 2 GB limitation and so installed outlook 2003 and then tried opening the pst, ran scanpst.exe, ran pstegb.exe file and then ran scanpst.exe and still no luck.

As a last resort, I tried using a third party software by ontrack and still no luck.

Any suggestions to help resolve the issue will be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

-Stephen.

Have you compacted it as outlined in the article?

In previous versions of outlook we were able to create shortcuts in the "Outlook" bar to the file system. This allowed users to move email messages to folders in the file system rather than having them all at risk in a single or multiple .pst file. Does anyone know if this is still possible in OUTLOOK 2003. Have done some searching but have not been able to find the answer to this question. Thanks in Advance

Yes, the outlook bar seems to have died a quiet death. I never used it, so it wasn't that big a loss to me :-). You can still drag and drop messages on to the file system, but as far as I can tell you need to open an instance of Windows Explorer opened to the right folder to be the drop target.

Perhaps someone will read this and come up with a more clever way within Outlook.

Another limitation to keep in mind when looking at large .pst file limitations is the 4 GB limit on the FAT32 file system. You will get similar errors/warnings to what is found when you reach the 2 GB limit with non-unicode .pst/.ost files when you reach 4 GB unless you are using NTFS. If you want to convert a volume from FAT32 to NTFS, just use the 'convert' utility built into Windows 2000 and XP.

I regularly run an incremental backup of my C: drive to an external hard drive. My large .PST file was taking up a lot of room because it was updated every time I filed a new email, and therefore the .PST was being included in every daily incremental backup. So I thought, I know, I'll split my folders into multiple smaller PST files. Great, except that unfortunately it seems that all the .PST files seem to be updated by Outlook, every time I run a Send/Receive, irrespective of whether or not I actually move an email into the PST file. Any suggestions?

Not really. The problem is that I believe Outlook stores more than just email in the psts - state information of various sorts. I just checked mine, and yes, I suffer the exact same problem.

I am dealing with an Outlook 2000 2GB issue and created another personal folder. However when I move items to the new folder the size that Explorer shows for the first PST file is the same size. THe new has grown though and if I check properties on both the sizes do change. Any idea why explorer would show a differnt size than that shown uncer properties in Outlook?

Thanks,

TK

You need to run the "compact now" steps as outlined in the article. The physical file size won't change immediately (it will, slowly, in idle time, but you can force it with "compact now").

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