Large PST file

[rthompson]

Hi to all of you

I've done a little search but cannot seem to find a similar question in this
group
So if it has been posted before, my appologies

We have a pst file problem

On one of our computers, when we open Outlook it takes for ages to open
This is (apparently) mainly due to the VERY large pst file (8 years of
Emails with attachements etc)

Unfortunately he insists on having access to all of his emails once in a
while even those two, three or more years old
And as he is the managing director I have to accept it

Has anybody got an idea?

Is it possible for instance to have different sessions
One where only the mails for the last running year are loaded
And one where everything is automatically saved, even if it is not
opened

So that when Outlook is opened today only the mails between December 4 2005
and December 4 2006 are loaded

and when it is opened on january 8 2007 only the emails between 8 january
2006 and january 8 2007 will open

BUT as mentioned all mails should be saved in a main file

I haven't got a glue if this is clear or not and if it is feasable or not

Any idea or indication of where to look will be very appreciated

Thank to you all

Rex

 

[firelock_ny]

Hi to all of you

I've done a little search but cannot seem to find a similar question in this
group
So if it has been posted before, my appologies

We have a pst file problem

On one of our computers, when we open Outlook it takes for ages to open
This is (apparently) mainly due to the VERY large pst file (8 years of
Emails with attachements etc)

Unfortunately he insists on having access to all of his emails once in a
while even those two, three or more years old
And as he is the managing director I have to accept it

Has anybody got an idea?

I'd recommend moving emails to archive PST files. You can even
do it automatically with the Archive function under
Tools\Options\Other.
Set it to run autoarchive once a day, then every few days change the
archive rule - set it up so it archives everything older than, say, 7
years
to an appropriately named file, then a few days later everything
older than 6 years to another, etc. Show the user how to use
File\Open to open the old archive folders when he needs to see
old emails. Get his PST file trimmed down to size and his
Outlook should run a *lot* faster, especially when he's doing things
like sorting emails.

One big reason he should do this: the bigger the PST file, the
more vulnerable it is to corruption. If that file gets corrupted
and the repair program (scanpst.exe) can't fix it, everything
will be gone unless he's got a backup.

 

[rthompson]

Hi there

And thank you for the advice

I will try to get him to do this

But .............. ))


I will let you know how things get on

Rex

 

[Brian Tillman]

On one of our computers, when we open Outlook it takes for ages to
open This is (apparently) mainly due to the VERY large pst file (8
years of Emails with attachements etc)

How large is the PST and what version of Outlook?

Unfortunately he insists on having access to all of his emails once
in a while even those two, three or more years old
And as he is the managing director I have to accept it

Has anybody got an idea?

Divide the PST into multiple PSTs. Organize items in those PSTs in anty way
the director is comfortable. For example, move all messages received in
2004 to a PST named "2004" and move all mesasges received in 2005 to a PST
named "2005". If that ordering doesn't work, use another. Create a PST for
each sender, for example, and move all messages from the same person to a
PST dedicated to messages from that person. You can organize things in
whatever way the director wants to work.

 

[rthompson]

Hi

And thanks for the reply

YES I agree that seems to be the way to go, but..........#

Unfortunateley it means that he will have to open and close things manually,
and this is what he refuses

Basically, what he wants is a miracle solutio

 

[rthompson]

Hi

And thank you for answering

YES I agree that is the way to go
But unfortunately that is exactly what he does not want to do

What he wants is a miracle solution

And that is what I cannot find

But thanks for the reply and I will try to convince him

Bye for now

Rex

 

[firelock_ny]

Hi there

And thank you for the advice

I will try to get him to do this

But .............. ))


I will let you know how things get on

Good luck - one of the biggest parts of the
job is getting user's expectations in line
with technical capabilities.

You might be able to use the faster response
from his email program when he sorts emails
or searches them as a selling point - when it
only has to search 12 to 24 months' worth
it will be lightning fast compared to searching
eight years' worth. And there's nothing stopping
him from keeping everything over a year old in
one honking big archive file that stays open
in his folder list, the auto-archive can move
things there for him and since he'll probably
never seek anything in there he'll have it
accessible while still having fast response
from his usual PST.

 

[DL]

You havent answered the question;
Version of OL
Size of pst?
The way forward depends on the response.

 

[Brian Tillman]

YES I agree that seems to be the way to go, but..........#

Unfortunateley it means that he will have to open and close things
manually, and this is what he refuses

No at all. You can have all the PSTs open at the same time.

 

[rthompson]

Hi and sorry for replying late

Operating system is XP version 2002 service pack 2
And the pst is getting close to 1 GB

Thanks for taking the time to help me out

Rex

 

[rthompson]

Hi and thanks

Getting an old dog to learn new tricks is one of the most difficult tasks I
have encountered so far
And I'm getting close to the sixties

Rex

 

[rthompson]

Hi
Thank you for the reply

Would this not cause Outlook to be slow again?


Rex

 

[DL]

Pre OL 2003 pst has an absolute size limitation of 2gb, however probs can
occur from 1.6gb.
You would likely be better off following Brians advice to split the pst into
multiple pst's

Hi and sorry for replying late

Operating system is XP version 2002 service pack 2
And the pst is getting close to 1 GB

Thanks for taking the time to help me out

Rex

 

[rthompson]

Hi and thanks for the advice

It seems like to best way to go

Rex

 

[Jay]

Someone told me that OL 2003 and later have this size limit too, unless "you do something special",
although he didn't say what.


Pre OL 2003 pst has an absolute size limitation of 2gb, however probs can occur from 1.6gb. You
would likely be better off following Brians advice to split the pst into multiple pst's

 

[Brian Tillman]

Would this not cause Outlook to be slow again?

It shouldn't, since each PST is much smaller, ideally. Outlook has no
trouble handling multiple PSTs.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Someone told me that OL 2003 and later have this size limit too,
unless "you do something special", although he didn't say what.

Nope. Unicode PSTs, the format Outlook 2003 uses natively, has a minimum
upper limit of 20GB, but that limit is controlled by a registry setting, so
it can get larger than that. The theoretical uppper limit is, I believe,
32TB

 

[rthompson]

Hi


Correct me if I'm wrong

I could under one single Email address open different pst files

And in each I would have just a few specific sub directories

So from a main outlook session I could save the incoming mails to various
other pst files???

If my understanding is correct let me know and I will run a few tests and
get back to you later


Rex

 

[rthompson]

Crikey

What can kind of super machine is to handle that kind of file???

 

[Brian Tillman]

Correct me if I'm wrong

I could under one single Email address open different pst files

This is correct and the mail address has nothing to do with it.

And in each I would have just a few specific sub directories

Or not. You don't need folders if it's a separate PST, but nothing stops
you from having them so that you can further organize your data within the
PST.

So from a main outlook session I could save the incoming mails to
various other pst files???

If that's what you want to do. You were talking about older messages,
however, not newly-received ones. You can have incoming messages moved by
rule to other folders, either in the default PST or in any others opened in
the mail profile, if you wish or you can move them later manually or by a
manually-run rule if you intend periodically to move things subject to the
same conditions.