Outlook PST Folders

[Jazz Cutts]

Is thee a limit to how large a pst folder (file) should
be and does large pst folders adversely impact Outlook.
I hav three pst folders, 2 over 3000kb and 1 about 2000kb
and climbing. Since then I've been told pst folders
(files) of this size will cause the OST to be corrupted
and cause Outlook to crash, thus its been occurring
regularly. I disconnect the pst folders and sometime get
a message the OST needs to be reconnected. I've since
reconnected the three PST folders and made a new OST and
the problems persist.

Thanks, Jazz

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

depends on what version of outlook you are using and what version of
Exchange is in the mix.


Outlook 97 - 2002 PST/OST file size limits (doesn't matter what version of
Exchange)

* 2GB max file size (things get real dicey after 1.8gb)
* 16,000/65,000 items per folder
* 16,000/65,000 folders per folder
* Large table support must be enabled to reach 65,000 item count

Outlook 2003 has two PST/OST file formats (does matter on version of
Exchange)
* Outlook 97/2002 Personal Folders (see above for limits)
* Personal Folders (refered to as a unicode store) Limits
- 20GB default file size (if you put this pst on a fat32 drive, then it is
4gb. its best to say that the file is limited by what type of partition it
is put on.)
- Unknown item/folder count.

The larger the pst, the slower outlook becomes because of hardware
limitations.

Exchange 2000/2003 are unicode stores. New OST files will be in the new
format. If you are migrating from Exchange 4/5.5, then your OST stays in
legacy format and ruled by the old limits until the OST is
deleted/recreated.