Hotmail on Outlook 2003 - PST File Maxed Out (~2GB)

[organizer]

Hi,

I use hotmail on outlook 2003 - outlook creates a pst file for hotmail
account but unfortunately it is office 97-2002 pst file type so once
it reaches 2GB it stops working and asks me to delete stuff to make
more room.

My question is how to resolve the issue? I wonder if I can switch
hotmail account to the newer pst type so I don't have to worry about
size, does anybody know if that is possible? I tried to create a new
pst file and then rename it to hotmail's pst filename but that did not
work.

Thanks,
Ofer

 

[VanguardLH]

in message

I use hotmail on outlook 2003 - outlook creates a pst file for
hotmail
account but unfortunately it is office 97-2002 pst file type so once
it reaches 2GB it stops working and asks me to delete stuff to make
more room.

My question is how to resolve the issue? I wonder if I can switch
hotmail account to the newer pst type so I don't have to worry about
size, does anybody know if that is possible? I tried to create a new
pst file and then rename it to hotmail's pst filename but that did
not
work.

From a Google search
(http://www.google.com/search?q=+outlook++2003++convert++ansi++unicode++pst):

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ansi-to-unicode.asp

 

[Diane Poremsky]

how are you connecting outlook to the acct? AFAIK, HTTP always uses ansi
format. I'm not sure what the outlook connector uses.

 

[VanguardLH]

in message

how are you connecting outlook to the acct? AFAIK, HTTP always uses
ansi format. I'm not sure what the outlook connector uses.

After you mentioned a PST file with an HTTP account still uses the
ANSI format and would therefore be limited to 2GB in size (which is
actually 1.87GB), I found:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830336/en-us
3rd paragraph

So the OP would have to move from OL2003 to OL2007 to get Unicode
format with its 20GB limit for HTTP accounts. Or start cleaning out
the garbage from his old PST message store, and then compact his PST
to physically purge the deleted items and reduce the size of the file.

I wonder if auto-archiving works on PST files for HTTP accounts so he
could clean out his current HTTP account by moving old items into an
archive file (and then also configure auto-archiving on the archive
file to delete items that get really old). I know rules don't work on
HTTP accounts and that each HTTP account gets its own message store
(i.e., .pst file). So I'm wondering if auto-archiving only works on
the default message store or across all of them of any type. I gave
up long ago on Microsoft's proprietary DAV interface which is only
usable in their own e-mail clients (Outlook & Outlook Express) as
there are better, easier, and more reliable solutions than Hotmail, so
I've never experimented with using auto-archiving on HTTP accounts.

 

[organizer]

Thanks VanguardLH!

I suspected that this is the case but you found the proof - no
unicode .pst files for hotmail in outlook 2003 - only 2007.

I will try to clean up my hotmail (BTW hotmail account takes up twice
the space in .pst format (2GB-even after compacting) than actual
storage reported by hotmail when I login through IE (1GB)) and if I
end up with too much stuff I will switch to outlook 2007.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I use hotmail on outlook 2003 - outlook creates a pst file for hotmail
account but unfortunately it is office 97-2002 pst file type so once
it reaches 2GB it stops working and asks me to delete stuff to make
more room.

My question is how to resolve the issue?

Copy your Hotmail stuff from the Hotmail folders to local folders.

 

[organizer]

Copy your Hotmail stuff from the Hotmail folders to local folders.

I guess I could but I don't really want to as it is nice to be able to
access everything from everywhere...

 

[Brian Tillman]

I guess I could but I don't really want to as it is nice to be able to
access everything from everywhere...

But you have conflicting requirements, then. Your server cache can't expand
to see everything on the server, yet you want to leave everything on the
server. You can't have it both ways without Outlook 2007.