My PST size is 4 GB and i cannot open it. Pl help.

[Guest]

Hi..I was using Outlook 2003. One fine day, outlook slowed down terribly and
i noticed that my PST size had reached 4GB. Even opening up a folder in the
PST took more than 5 mins. I tried to "move" folders from that PST onto
another, but outlook just created a copy and each copy of an emailtook more
than a minute. I recently upgraded to 2007. Outlook 2007 doesn't even open
it. It says "Your PST file has reached its maximum size. Please delete
unwanted emails to ....".
But, it doesnt open the PST for me to be able to delete it.
PLEASE HELP.
thanks a lot in advance.

 

[BillR [MVP]]

Are you sure it is 4 Gb and not 2 Gb?
The max file size for the older ANSI PST is 2 Gb. Outlook 2003 supports
Unicode PST with a much larger max size.

What operating system are you using and what OS level formatting do you
have - FAT32 or NTFS?

4 Gb is a limit for FAT32. If you use FAT32 then you might be able to copy
the file to a system using NTFS and open it and trim it down.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Hi..I was using Outlook 2003. One fine day, outlook slowed down
terribly and i noticed that my PST size had reached 4GB. Even opening
up a folder in the PST took more than 5 mins. I tried to "move"
folders from that PST onto another, but outlook just created a copy
and each copy of an emailtook more than a minute. I recently upgraded
to 2007. Outlook 2007 doesn't even open it. It says "Your PST file
has reached its maximum size. Please delete unwanted emails to ....".
But, it doesnt open the PST for me to be able to delete it.

Sounds like your PST is actually an Outlook 97-2002 PST that you were using
in Outlook 2003. If that's the case, your approach will be as described
here: http://www.slipstick.com/problems/repair2gbpst.asp

 

[Brian Tillman]

What operating system are you using and what OS level formatting do
you have - FAT32 or NTFS?

I think you may be on to the correct issue.

 

[Guest]

Hello Rajaram,

In addition to the reply of Brain, here is one more article which will
resolve your issue.

Usually, inbox repair tool doesnot resolve the issue if you have exceeded 2
GB of the size limit, Technically speaking outlook 2003 has a limit of 1.6GB.

The article presented speaks about truncating the data , means chopping off
the data.
you can reduce the file size by this tool and you have to run the scan pst
tool again.

This is pain taking task as it takes a long time to chop the pst file , i
mean reduce the file size, please be patience.

ARTICLE - 296088

WEBLINK - support.microsoft.com

Hope this will resolve the issue.