Cannot reduce bloated .PST file ??

[Richard]

We have done some house cleaning in our Outlook 2002 file folders, but the
OUTLOOK.PST file has barely diminished in size from the original 260 MB
size. We have checked the folder sizes in the properties dialog for the
Outlook Today folder and we also emptied the 'Deleted Items' folder to
permanently delete all the deleted e-mails and attachments. We have also
run the Inbox Repair Tool (SCANPST.EXE) on the OUTLOOK.PST file and the file
is free of any corruption. None of these items seem to account for the
bloated .PST file size. Outlook 2002 opens very slowly and we assume it is
on account of the large .PST file size. What is going on here, is there a
reason our file remains so large after purging so many messages?

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP]

260MB is not especially huge for a PST file but have you tried compacting
it? Right-click the root of the PST in the folder list, go to Properties |
Advanced and click Compact Now (if I recall correctly).

Aloha,

-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, OneNote-MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
Microsoft Outlook FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/outlook.htm

**I apologize but I am unable to respond to direct requests for assistance.
Please post questions and replies here in the newsgroup. Mahalo!

 

[Richard]

Ben,

Thanks for the reply. It is nice to know that our .PST file size is not
particularly abnormal. However, why did it not reduce in size when our
house cleaning eliminated almost 2/3 of our e-mails and almost all of our
attachments?

Another question if you don't mind. For some reason we now have two sets of
OUTLOOK TODAY folders in our Outlook 2002 folder list? Furthermore, we
cannot delete either of them. They each contain the same set of folders. I
suspect the second one is just pointing to the same destination as the
first. The only thing different I did was create an account in OUTLOOK
EXPRESS and then exported some of the emails with large attachments from
Express to Outlook 2002, since express does not have the HTTP time-out of 1
minute on large downloads. Any suggestions for removing this redundant set
of main OUTLOOK TODAY folders?

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[Newt Ownsquare]

See my comments inline below.


| Ben,
|
| Thanks for the reply. It is nice to know that our .PST file size is not
| particularly abnormal. However, why did it not reduce in size when our
| house cleaning eliminated almost 2/3 of our e-mails and almost all of our
| attachments?

Did you compact the file as Schorr suggested?

See this article for info on reducing the size of the active file:

How to compact PST and OST files to eliminate deleted item space in Outlook 2002
and Outlook 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289987/

|
| Another question if you don't mind. For some reason we now have two sets of
| OUTLOOK TODAY folders in our Outlook 2002 folder list? Furthermore, we
| cannot delete either of them. They each contain the same set of folders. I
| suspect the second one is just pointing to the same destination as the
| first. The only thing different I did was create an account in OUTLOOK
| EXPRESS and then exported some of the emails with large attachments from
| Express to Outlook 2002, since express does not have the HTTP time-out of 1
| minute on large downloads. Any suggestions for removing this redundant set
| of main OUTLOOK TODAY folders?

The Outlook Today name identifies the complete PST file [Personal Folders], not
just a special folder.

You might want to try the Detect and Repair utility [click on Help > Detect and
Repair]. If duplicates still show up, try closing one of them.

|
| *******************
|