Export to .pst file "object not found error"

[Mark Christensen]

Hello,

I have Outlook 2002 SP3. At the beginning of each month I always save a
backup of my mailbox by exporting it to a .pst file. Today I tried to do it
just as I have everyother month for years but I got an error saying

"The operation failed. An object could not be found."

Nothing has changed on my PC. As far as I know, nothing has changed on our
server since the beginning of March when I last successfully created a
backup .pst file. Our server is running Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition
SP2 and Exchange 2003.

Any ideas why I can't create my .pst file? I tried closing and restarting
Outlook but it didn't help. Thanks.

Mark

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Return question; why are you creating a "backup" while you are running an
Exchange server? The mail admin will then make backups for you. You're
currently only wasting space really.
I say "backup" because an export is not a real backup. You'll be leaving out
a lot of (meta) data this way.
Also, exporting to a pst-file should also be done to a local disk and not a
shared folder. It's neither supported or recommended by Microsoft. If it
worked before that is great, but don't get disappointed if it breaks or
created corrupted pst-file.

So; does it work when you export to a pst-file on your local disk? If not,
at which exact point do you get the error.

 

[Mark Christensen]

A few years ago our old server died and we were VERY lucky to get all of our
Outlook data for each user off of it and onto the new (current) server. Our
IT guy at the time recommended we make a .pst file just as another safety
net. I'm no IT pro (but am the psuedo IT guy here for some issues) but I've
been making that .pst file each month since then. You're saying this is not
necessary?

Interesting enough, it just worked when I pointed it to save it to my local
C drive. I've always saved it to one of the drives on the server (not the
same drive Exchange is installed on though).

Am I simply wasting time & space by continuing to do this .pst at the
beginning of each month? Thanks.

Mark

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Yes, it is truly a waste of time and space. Your IT guy should simple make
backups of the Exchange server database and learn (and test!) how to restore
such backups. Making (or at least providing input to) an IT contingency plan
for your corporation is the task of the admin as well. The whole purpose of
having a server side solution is to have centralized management and not
bother your users with administrative tasks.

 

[Pat Willener]

Export is not backup, as Roady has already mentioned.

If your IT people cannot handle it correctly, you can do it by using
Archive or AutoArchive to a local PST file. I have done this for over 10
years and never lost any data.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Your post suggests that Archive or AutoArchive creates a backup which (of
course) is not the case ;-)