Outlook 2000 pst file problem

[TerranSky]

I have a pst file that is pretty big, a little over 2 gigs and I can't
access it. I've heard that there's a limitation of 2 gigs but I've also
heard that that limitation shouldn't cause it to be inaccessible.
However, I've run scanpst.exe a few times and it always shows that it
got to phase four and then 100% shows on the progress bar and I get the
encountered problem error message. Looking in the log file, the final
entry is Fatal Error: 80040900. I've opened the pst file in hex
workshop but I'm not sure what to look for. Can this pst file be
repaired? Is there anything else besides the inbox repair tool that can
handle it?

 

[rifleman]

|
|I have a pst file that is pretty big, a little over 2 gigs and I can't
|access it. I've heard that there's a limitation of 2 gigs but I've also
|heard that that limitation shouldn't cause it to be inaccessible.
|However, I've run scanpst.exe a few times and it always shows that it
|got to phase four and then 100% shows on the progress bar and I get the
|encountered problem error message. Looking in the log file, the final
|entry is Fatal Error: 80040900. I've opened the pst file in hex
|workshop but I'm not sure what to look for. Can this pst file be
|repaired? Is there anything else besides the inbox repair tool that can
|handle it?
|
try here:

http://www.slipstick.com/problems/repair2gbpst.htm

my brain still boggles over ANYONE who can get a pst file that big.
Why?

 

[TerranSky]

try here:

http://www.slipstick.com/problems/repair2gbpst.htm

my brain still boggles over ANYONE who can get a pst file that big.
Why?

Primarily, an outomated process from a vendor emails a lot of files to
me on a daily basis. These files contain data that is essential from a
historical basis and must be maintained. Also, I work in a profession
that is heavily dependent on myriad data sources. I argue this
regularly with our IT department that can't conceive of the scope,
especially since no other department in the company has the same issues.
For example, they are always questioning why my department's workgroup
requires so many gigabytes worth of disk space that we're flirting with
the terabyte range. Anyway, suffice it to say that the pst file gets
huge really fast and I sometimes forget to compact and back it up. I
had to resort to restoring my last backup in order to get a working pst
file while I work on the problem pst file. Unfortunately, there is a
gap of several months that I have to deal with unless I can get it
repaired. Thanks for the help.

 

[Dean Landry]

Primarily, an outomated process from a vendor emails a lot of files to
me on a daily basis. These files contain data that is essential from a
historical basis and must be maintained. Also, I work in a profession
that is heavily dependent on myriad data sources. I argue this
regularly with our IT department that can't conceive of the scope,
especially since no other department in the company has the same issues.
For example, they are always questioning why my department's workgroup
requires so many gigabytes worth of disk space that we're flirting with
the terabyte range. Anyway, suffice it to say that the pst file gets
huge really fast and I sometimes forget to compact and back it up. I
had to resort to restoring my last backup in order to get a working pst
file while I work on the problem pst file. Unfortunately, there is a
gap of several months that I have to deal with unless I can get it
repaired. Thanks for the help.

Have you considered using the auto-archive feature to reduce the size of
your PST? You can then open this pst file in outlook when you need that
data. I have a lot of users with large PST files because they never
delete anything (well... they do, but they refuse to empty the deleted
items folder). It seems the large-file size also causes poor
performance in Outlook.

Dean

 

[rifleman]

|In article <[email protected]>, me9
|@privacy.net says...
|> try here:
|>
|> http://www.slipstick.com/problems/repair2gbpst.htm
|>
|> my brain still boggles over ANYONE who can get a pst file that big.
|> Why?
|>
|Primarily, an outomated process from a vendor emails a lot of files to
|me on a daily basis. These files contain data that is essential from a
|historical basis and must be maintained. Also, I work in a profession
|that is heavily dependent on myriad data sources. I argue this
|regularly with our IT department that can't conceive of the scope,
|especially since no other department in the company has the same issues.
|For example, they are always questioning why my department's workgroup
|requires so many gigabytes worth of disk space that we're flirting with
|the terabyte range. Anyway, suffice it to say that the pst file gets
|huge really fast and I sometimes forget to compact and back it up. I
|had to resort to restoring my last backup in order to get a working pst
|file while I work on the problem pst file. Unfortunately, there is a
|gap of several months that I have to deal with unless I can get it
|repaired. Thanks for the help.
|
Would you not be better extracting the data to a database rather than
keeping it all in a pst file?

 

[Dean Landry]

|In article <[email protected]>, me9
|@privacy.net says...
|> try here:
|>
|> http://www.slipstick.com/problems/repair2gbpst.htm
|>
|> my brain still boggles over ANYONE who can get a pst file that big.
|> Why?
|>
|Primarily, an outomated process from a vendor emails a lot of files to
|me on a daily basis. These files contain data that is essential from a
|historical basis and must be maintained. Also, I work in a profession
|that is heavily dependent on myriad data sources. I argue this
|regularly with our IT department that can't conceive of the scope,
|especially since no other department in the company has the same issues.
|For example, they are always questioning why my department's workgroup
|requires so many gigabytes worth of disk space that we're flirting with
|the terabyte range. Anyway, suffice it to say that the pst file gets
|huge really fast and I sometimes forget to compact and back it up. I
|had to resort to restoring my last backup in order to get a working pst
|file while I work on the problem pst file. Unfortunately, there is a
|gap of several months that I have to deal with unless I can get it
|repaired. Thanks for the help.
|
Would you not be better extracting the data to a database rather than
keeping it all in a pst file?

Depends on whether or not you can read from the database in outlook.
Are there database apps that are made for archiving e-mail?

Dean

 

[Roady]

The AutoArchive won't help you here unless you configure it to delete the
mails. If you just move the files to an archive file you'll eventually end
up with the same result; a pst-file of 2GB.

You are correct on the performance issue. It degrades significantly when
passing the 1.5GB even on the fastest machine. People who don't have "the
latest and greatst" will often see performance degradation start at about
700MB (which is is a good size to archive to CD :-D)
--
Roady
www.sparnaaij.net
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-----

 

[Dean Landry]

The AutoArchive won't help you here unless you configure it to delete the
mails. If you just move the files to an archive file you'll eventually end
up with the same result; a pst-file of 2GB.

You are correct on the performance issue. It degrades significantly when
passing the 1.5GB even on the fastest machine. People who don't have "the
latest and greatst" will often see performance degradation start at about
700MB (which is is a good size to archive to CD :-D)

We usually archive the archive pst to a CD once it reaches unmanageable
sizes. Fortunately, our users haven't reached the point where they need
multiple CDs yet

Dean

 

[Roady]

Burning a DVD instead?

Zipping the pst-files works great as well. I've seen pst-file reduce over
75% in size this way. Most compressing software like WinZip or WinRAR will
let you span the file as well so you can split it over more then one CD

Of course this is not the way to go when people hit the limit of an Outlook
2003 file which can become as large as 4096TB (minus 1MB)
:-D

--
Roady
www.sparnaaij.net
Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office related News
Also Outlook FAQ, How To's, Downloads and more...

Questions of the month:
-Color Code Your E-Mail Advanced
-Add Sound To Your E-mail

Subscribe to the newsletter to receive news and tips & tricks in your
mailbox!
www.sparnaaij.net

-----

 

[Dean Landry]

Burning a DVD instead?

Zipping the pst-files works great as well. I've seen pst-file reduce over
75% in size this way. Most compressing software like WinZip or WinRAR will
let you span the file as well so you can split it over more then one CD

Of course this is not the way to go when people hit the limit of an Outlook
2003 file which can become as large as 4096TB (minus 1MB)
:-D

Why not just fire that user and hire someone who knows how to delete
unneeded e-mail?

 

[Roady]

Neih, you can have lots of fun with those users. Limit the homedirectory,
limit the Exchange mailbox and when they are starting to store locally take
away their PC for "maintenance" and supply it with a clean Windows image
:-D.

(in fact I'm allowed to do this as I am not responsible for whatever is
stored locally)
--
Roady
www.sparnaaij.net
Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office related News
Also Outlook FAQ, How To's, Downloads and more...

Questions of the month:
-Color Code Your E-Mail Advanced
-Add Sound To Your E-mail

Subscribe to the newsletter to receive news and tips & tricks in your
mailbox!
www.sparnaaij.net

-----

 

[TerranSky]

Have you considered using the auto-archive feature to reduce the size of
your PST? You can then open this pst file in outlook when you need that
data. I have a lot of users with large PST files because they never
delete anything (well... they do, but they refuse to empty the deleted
items folder). It seems the large-file size also causes poor
performance in Outlook.

Dean

That's what the boss was telling me yesterday <sigh>. I'll have to
start doing that. Although the fix that can be put in to Outlook so
that it keeps my pst file from going over the limit is appealing in
itself. Archive, definitely, but with the pst file now repaired,
compacted and imported in to my new pst, it's down to a much more
manageable 325 MB.

 

[TerranSky]

Would you not be better extracting the data to a database rather than
keeping it all in a pst file?

I get something like 14 of the emails per day and only really need two
of them. The others are for reference when problems arise. Coming back
from a long weekend, I have to save eight of the suckers and that's
tedious. Having to do them all every day would be a nightmare of
tedium. Ugh. The only real problem is that I got lazy in maintaining
my pst and that fix that gets Outlook to warn me when the pst gets too
big and prevents it from getting bigger was the one safety net that I
was lacking before. Thanks again for the url, rifleman.