dont want to appear dumb but, guess i am

[jim sturtz]

I am using OLXP and we are connected to an exchange server.

i have a .pst file on my local machine (which i believe is supposed to be my
local archive repository). I have an .ost that I think accumulates my
email when I am offline then feeds it into the exchange & back out to my
various machines running OL (laptop, home, office desktop).

After I 'synchronize' my OL when attached to the server the .ost file doesnt
get smaller. So I am guessing it just keeps getting bigger & bigger, even
tho i has 'dumped' to the exchange files. If that is so, I should
compact/purge/delete it once in awhile, yes? If I do this will it test to
make sure the latest emails have been synchronized first itself, or must I
do this manually, then compact?

I just moved some messages from a current folder to my archive folder of it.
The archive function kept breaking cuz it said the server connection was
tenuous or some such, but by moving a chunk at a time manually I cleared out
the folder. The size of my .pst file didnt change. Why? I thought the
archived stuff went into the .pst file.

Speaking of files and OL. Why do I want a home page for a folder in my
email. My thought was the folder within my inbox just let me segregate the
mails by type (at least thats what i do with them). So the folder was more
of a mail analog/fiction along the lines of having a folder to store stuff
in on a hard-drive. Or in the case of OE i think the folder was really a
particular file for that group of emails. Anyhow, is there really a folder
that the emails for my sub-account called 'friends' and it has those emails
in it?

And speaking of other OL mysteries. If the 'current' inbox messages are on
my local machine (i suppose i have duplicate copies of them on my laptop,
office desktop and home desktop after doing a synchronize on all three), and
the archives are on the 1 machine i have a .pst file. Then what is on the
server once it has synchronized stuff out to the local OL machines?

thanks.

jim

 

[Vagabond Software]

I am using OLXP and we are connected to an exchange server.

i have a .pst file on my local machine (which i believe is supposed to be my
local archive repository). I have an .ost that I think accumulates my
email when I am offline then feeds it into the exchange & back out to my
various machines running OL (laptop, home, office desktop).

After I 'synchronize' my OL when attached to the server the .ost file doesnt
get smaller. So I am guessing it just keeps getting bigger & bigger, even
tho i has 'dumped' to the exchange files. If that is so, I should
compact/purge/delete it once in awhile, yes? If I do this will it test to
make sure the latest emails have been synchronized first itself, or must I
do this manually, then compact?

I just moved some messages from a current folder to my archive folder of it.
The archive function kept breaking cuz it said the server connection was
tenuous or some such, but by moving a chunk at a time manually I cleared out
the folder. The size of my .pst file didnt change. Why? I thought the
archived stuff went into the .pst file.

And speaking of other OL mysteries. If the 'current' inbox messages are on
my local machine (i suppose i have duplicate copies of them on my laptop,
office desktop and home desktop after doing a synchronize on all three), and
the archives are on the 1 machine i have a .pst file. Then what is on the
server once it has synchronized stuff out to the local OL machines?

thanks.

jim

The only local PST file that would be used in an Exchange environment is an archive.pst (if you are using archiving). The OST file is a local copy of your Exchange Mailbox, though I don't believe it includes any public folders you may or may not be using on the Exchange Server.

If you suddently had a domain problem where Active Directory lost trust with your computer or user account, you would be forever and irreversibly locked out of your local OST file and all the data therein. It would be a good practice to begin backing up your local Outlook data by Exporting it to a PST file, perhaps named backup.pst.

As you point out, any computer where you use an Outlook client to connect to your exchange server will sync your Exchange mailbox into your local OST file. If you use AutoArchiving on computer #1 and add the archive.pst to your Data File Manager, then the archived data will only be available on computer #1. However, this should reduce the size of the OST file on all three or four or five computers that you use.

Again, if you don't already have one, get yourself one of those little USB flash drives and use it to transfer your backup.pst and archive.pst to any other computers you want to store them on. Finally! Another great use for Briefcase!

Good Luck,

carl

 

[jim sturtz]

[off topic a bit...i own copies of both programs below but do not sell them
or own stock in their companies...just think they are good software....
Speaking of Briefcase, there is a program that is fairly cheap called Second
Copy from www Centered.com which is pretty slick for doing automatic copies
of drives/files/folders, is easy to use, and will copy to anywhere even over
the net if you can give it a path to another machine. in conjunction with a
program called WebDrive (www webdrive.com) another inexpensive, easy to use
program which will let you map a FTPable site to a local drive you can do
about anything.]

so the .ost file IS my local emails? then when i move things from my inbox
to my archive, the .ost should get smaller (if compressed) and the .pst
should get larger? my confusion comes in that is just what i did and i
couldnt see either of them change size. i nitely make backups of them to
another drive, so would be protected from the loss you described. but what
about things on the exchange server, what is there if the currently active
'stuff' is in the .ost and the archives are in the .pst?

i only have the one .pst file setup as i figure the laptop and my home
machine dont NEED the history but each has an .ost, i just assumed that was
a kind of temp file to put the offline stuff in until it could upload to the
exchange server. if the .ost file is really my 'current' inbox, ie stuff
not in the archive, then shouldnt they be all the same size? in that i
'synchronized' them all?

thanks.

jim

I am using OLXP and we are connected to an exchange server.

i have a .pst file on my local machine (which i believe is supposed to be my
local archive repository). I have an .ost that I think accumulates my
email when I am offline then feeds it into the exchange & back out to my
various machines running OL (laptop, home, office desktop).

After I 'synchronize' my OL when attached to the server the .ost file doesnt
get smaller. So I am guessing it just keeps getting bigger & bigger, even
tho i has 'dumped' to the exchange files. If that is so, I should
compact/purge/delete it once in awhile, yes? If I do this will it test to
make sure the latest emails have been synchronized first itself, or must I
do this manually, then compact?

I just moved some messages from a current folder to my archive folder of it.
The archive function kept breaking cuz it said the server connection was
tenuous or some such, but by moving a chunk at a time manually I cleared out
the folder. The size of my .pst file didnt change. Why? I thought the
archived stuff went into the .pst file.

And speaking of other OL mysteries. If the 'current' inbox messages are on
my local machine (i suppose i have duplicate copies of them on my laptop,
office desktop and home desktop after doing a synchronize on all three), and
the archives are on the 1 machine i have a .pst file. Then what is on the
server once it has synchronized stuff out to the local OL machines?

thanks.

jim

The only local PST file that would be used in an Exchange environment is an
archive.pst (if you are using archiving). The OST file is a local copy of
your Exchange Mailbox, though I don't believe it includes any public folders
you may or may not be using on the Exchange Server.

If you suddently had a domain problem where Active Directory lost trust with
your computer or user account, you would be forever and irreversibly locked
out of your local OST file and all the data therein. It would be a good
practice to begin backing up your local Outlook data by Exporting it to a
PST file, perhaps named backup.pst.

As you point out, any computer where you use an Outlook client to connect to
your exchange server will sync your Exchange mailbox into your local OST
file. If you use AutoArchiving on computer #1 and add the archive.pst to
your Data File Manager, then the archived data will only be available on
computer #1. However, this should reduce the size of the OST file on all
three or four or five computers that you use.

Again, if you don't already have one, get yourself one of those little USB
flash drives and use it to transfer your backup.pst and archive.pst to any
other computers you want to store them on. Finally! Another great use for
Briefcase!

Good Luck,

carl

 

[Vagabond Software]

so the .ost file IS my local emails? then when i move things from my inbox
to my archive, the .ost should get smaller (if compressed) and the ..pst
should get larger? my confusion comes in that is just what i did and i
couldnt see either of them change size. i nitely make backups of them to
another drive, so would be protected from the loss you described. but what
about things on the exchange server, what is there if the currently active
'stuff' is in the .ost and the archives are in the .pst?

i only have the one .pst file setup as i figure the laptop and my home
machine dont NEED the history but each has an .ost, i just assumed that was
a kind of temp file to put the offline stuff in until it could upload to the
exchange server. if the .ost file is really my 'current' inbox, ie stuff
not in the archive, then shouldnt they be all the same size? in that i
'synchronized' them all?

thanks.

jim

Yes, the OST file is the current working image of your Exchange Mailbox. Yes, they should roughly all be about the same size, perhaps. I can't give you a definite answer on that. I'm not sure that the OST file will automatically reduce size after archiving as it is like a database that needs to be compacted to reduce size after deleting records.

NOTE: It is not enough to "copy" the OST file. You MUST export the data to a format you can read/import (i.e. PST) independently of the domain. If you want to experiment, copy the OST file to another computer where you have created a user account called "Tester". You will not be able to open that OST file with any program, no way, no how.

Even in a cached Exchange environment, there should be little that is on the server that is not on the client and vice-versa. Yes, vice-versa. For example, you can setup a pop-account on the same computer with the Exchange Account, and depending on your Data File Management, your pop-mail will be in your OST file and migrated to your Exchange Server mailbox. When you logon with computer #2 you will get your normal work email and the pop-account mail as part of the synchronization.

Technically, if your Exchange Server mailstore database were to die a horrible death. The administrator could just create a new blank mailstore and your Exchange Mailbox would be restored with the contents of your local OST file when you perform your first synchronization.

Again, I honestly can't speak about what effects file sizes of local OST files, though I know my database description is correct, at least as a partial explanation.

carl

 

[jim sturtz]

i did move some stuff from current to archive today and during that i saw
the .ost & .pst changing sizes. later tho i did a SENDALL and the exchange
server took awhile messing about so i did a compact and it did take some
time to resize the .ost smaller than it had been. it seems to take quite
awhile when i move things from current to archive so im thinking that even
tho both files are local it is running the changes out thru the exchange
machine (over the internet to it) and back.

i think that my .osts are different sizes. so if i take my office .ost and
export it (by exporting my inbox i guess) as office.pst, then if i go home
and import it should synch up the two for real? and i would have identical
'current' files? i believe i saw something in the import/export dialogue
about not importing duplicates or some such so i should avoid that, hunh!

btw, carl (i guess) thanks for taking the time to work with me on this, i do
appreciate it.

so now, i was just looking at the properties page for a folder, and what
gives with the 'home page' business for a folder. also i noticed on the
'synch' tab that it says for statistics that 'server folder contains 41
items' and 'offline folder contains 41 items' so it sounds like there is
some sort of dupping going on between the local and server datastores, no?

jim

so the .ost file IS my local emails? then when i move things from my inbox
to my archive, the .ost should get smaller (if compressed) and the .pst
should get larger? my confusion comes in that is just what i did and i
couldnt see either of them change size. i nitely make backups of them to
another drive, so would be protected from the loss you described. but what
about things on the exchange server, what is there if the currently active
'stuff' is in the .ost and the archives are in the .pst?

i only have the one .pst file setup as i figure the laptop and my home
machine dont NEED the history but each has an .ost, i just assumed that was
a kind of temp file to put the offline stuff in until it could upload to the
exchange server. if the .ost file is really my 'current' inbox, ie stuff
not in the archive, then shouldnt they be all the same size? in that i
'synchronized' them all?

thanks.

jim

Yes, the OST file is the current working image of your Exchange Mailbox.
Yes, they should roughly all be about the same size, perhaps. I can't give
you a definite answer on that. I'm not sure that the OST file will
automatically reduce size after archiving as it is like a database that
needs to be compacted to reduce size after deleting records.

NOTE: It is not enough to "copy" the OST file. You MUST export the data to
a format you can read/import (i.e. PST) independently of the domain. If you
want to experiment, copy the OST file to another computer where you have
created a user account called "Tester". You will not be able to open that
OST file with any program, no way, no how.

Even in a cached Exchange environment, there should be little that is on the
server that is not on the client and vice-versa. Yes, vice-versa. For
example, you can setup a pop-account on the same computer with the Exchange
Account, and depending on your Data File Management, your pop-mail will be
in your OST file and migrated to your Exchange Server mailbox. When you
logon with computer #2 you will get your normal work email and the
pop-account mail as part of the synchronization.

Technically, if your Exchange Server mailstore database were to die a
horrible death. The administrator could just create a new blank mailstore
and your Exchange Mailbox would be restored with the contents of your local
OST file when you perform your first synchronization.

Again, I honestly can't speak about what effects file sizes of local OST
files, though I know my database description is correct, at least as a
partial explanation.

carl

 

[jim sturtz]

hmm. im at home now.

the .ost is about 1/3 the size of the office one, tho they are supposed to
both be in synch with the server.

i figured i would clone the .ost and take it to the office & maybe attempt
importing it. something is different, maybe only the file structures, as
the .pst is already 197meg vs the .ost 150meg and it still has several
folders to go.

jim

 

[jim sturtz]

a real hmmmer.

when it finally got done the .pst i created from outlook
today-[mailbox]-inbox was 416 meg vs the outlook.ost of 150 meg. is the
storage form that much different or is there something else in that .pst i
made?

thanks.

jim

 

[Vagabond Software]

i did move some stuff from current to archive today and during that i saw
the .ost & .pst changing sizes. later tho i did a SENDALL and the exchange
server took awhile messing about so i did a compact and it did take some
time to resize the .ost smaller than it had been. it seems to take quite
awhile when i move things from current to archive so im thinking that even
tho both files are local it is running the changes out thru the exchange
machine (over the internet to it) and back.

i think that my .osts are different sizes. so if i take my office ..ost and
export it (by exporting my inbox i guess) as office.pst, then if i go home
and import it should synch up the two for real? and i would have identical
'current' files? i believe i saw something in the import/export dialogue
about not importing duplicates or some such so i should avoid that, hunh!

btw, carl (i guess) thanks for taking the time to work with me on this, i do
appreciate it.

so now, i was just looking at the properties page for a folder, and what
gives with the 'home page' business for a folder. also i noticed on the
'synch' tab that it says for statistics that 'server folder contains 41
items' and 'offline folder contains 41 items' so it sounds like there is
some sort of dupping going on between the local and server datastores, no?

jim

First, the OST file is a duplicate of your Exchange Server mailbox. In practice, you could lose one or the other, but not both, and restore all your Outlook data from the remaining source, whether it be the server mailbox or the OST file. So, you are correct to think that anything that happens on your local machine gets duplicated on the server mailbox. The OST file is referred to as the "Offline Personal Folders" because if you were to unplug your network cable, you would still be able to view and manipulate all your Outlook information.

File size discrepencies could have to do with your use of public folders at one location and not the other. It could also have to do with deleted items and retention settings on the server, but I'm really only guessing on that one. Unless you believe that you are having synchronization problems, then I wouldn't be too concerned about file-size discrepencies.

carl

 

[Vagabond Software]

a real hmmmer.

when it finally got done the .pst i created from outlook
today-[mailbox]-inbox was 416 meg vs the outlook.ost of 150 meg. is the
storage form that much different or is there something else in that ..pst i
made?

thanks.

jim

hmm. im at home now.

the .ost is about 1/3 the size of the office one, tho they are supposed to
both be in synch with the server.

i figured i would clone the .ost and take it to the office & maybe attempt
importing it. something is different, maybe only the file structures, as
the .pst is already 197meg vs the .ost 150meg and it still has several
folders to go.

jim

Yes, the PST is a different structure than the OST file. Do you think that you have data on the work computer that you should be seeing on the home computer, but are not seeing there?

carl

 

[jim sturtz]

well, i didnt think i should. isnt the synchronize function supposed to
send any 'put in at here online/offline' to the server and then when synched
at the office (or home or laptop) a copy is passed on? therefore the two
local datastores s/b roughly the same size?

jim

<<Yes, the PST is a different structure than the OST file. Do you think
that you have data on the work computer that you should be seeing on the
home computer, but are not seeing there?

carl>>