Outlook PST question

[Bazwaz]

Hi,
I have a user (Boss, actually) and he wants to take his emails home on a CD.
(You know what they're like...)
The setup here is this :
Boss is on a XP laptop PC in the office.
Mail server is Exchange, but only internal. Not accesible from outside. (We
plan to add MX in May.) External mail is grabbed from the ISP by a POP mail
grabber.
Outlook account on PC is using cache.

(I think I'm right in thinking that if he took his laptop home he would
still find his mails on it.
Because they're synchronised in an OST ? I think, never tried that.)

The only thing I can see him doing is an archive of all his mails into a
PST.
Copy the PST onto a CD and take it home.
But, if I remember correctly, a PST has to be on a Read/Write media for
Outlook to be able to open it.
So then he would have to copy the PST to his hard drive.

Am I right / wrong /partly ?
TIA

Bazwaz

 

[Francine Otterson [MVP - Outlook]]

Would not recommend putting them onto a CD - just not an efficient way to do
it - at minimum as you stated the .ost file (offline setup) can be used and
he can have his email when he goes home and it will synch when he is
reconnected to the server. There is no need to move to pst file since you
can setup to work offline.

Also check out the site below for more options.

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync.htm

--
Regards,

Francine Otterson
President, San Diego Outlook User Group
MVP - Microsoft Outlook

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have a user (Boss, actually) and he wants to take his emails home
on a CD. (You know what they're like...)
The setup here is this :
Boss is on a XP laptop PC in the office.
Mail server is Exchange, but only internal. Not accesible from
outside. (We plan to add MX in May.) External mail is grabbed from
the ISP by a POP mail grabber.
Outlook account on PC is using cache.

(I think I'm right in thinking that if he took his laptop home he
would still find his mails on it.
Because they're synchronised in an OST ? I think, never tried that.)

If you are using Cached Exchange mode, this is correct. He should be able
to work offline and have full functionality.

The only thing I can see him doing is an archive of all his mails
into a PST.

No. Archives are not suited to this purpose.

Copy the PST onto a CD and take it home.
But, if I remember correctly, a PST has to be on a Read/Write media
for Outlook to be able to open it.
So then he would have to copy the PST to his hard drive.

If he wants his Exchange data at home without taking the laptop, he can
create a new PST (File>New>Outlook Data File) and copy the contents of his
Exchange mailbox to that PST. He can then close Outlook and copy that PST
and his other PST to the CD and take them home. Outlook MUST be closed when
the CD is burned.

At home he can, as you surmise, copy the PSTs to his hard drive, taking care
not to overwrite any existing PST, remove the read-only attribute from those
PST, start Outlook, and then open them with File>Open>Outlook Data File.
Keep in mind also that if the version of Outlook at work is Outlook 2003 but
Outlook at home is Outlook 2002 or earlier, he must take care to create an
Outlook 97-2002 format PST at work or the home Outlook won't be able to read
it.

 

[Bazwaz]

Gotcha Brian,
Didn't quite understand this bit :
"No. Archives are not suited to this purpose"
is there a difference between an archive and a PST ?

I think the whole idea is a bit weird, but he's the New Boss.
I think he doesn't want to carry the laptop home.
But as he will be away on vacation, he will be able to read up on old long
mails that the Old Boss sent him.
They never want to tell you why they have these weird schemes.
"Being the Commander requires a certain amount of mystery."
Gen. de Gaulle.

 

[Bazwaz]

Hi Brian,
I'll reformaulate my question

I said :
"The only thing I can see him doing is an archive of all his mails
into a PST."

And you replied :
"No. Archives are not suited to this purpose."


Then you said :
"If he wants his Exchange data at home without taking the laptop, he can
create a new PST (File>New>Outlook Data File) and copy the contents of his
Exchange mailbox to that PST."


OK, I can see that creating an archive is rather more laborious and that
creating a new empty file is a more straighforward method, and in future I
shall
probably adopt your method.
But - just for curiosity's sake - would there be any difference in the end
result between the two PSTs ??

TIA
Bazwaz

 

[Brian Tillman]

Didn't quite understand this bit :
"No. Archives are not suited to this purpose"
is there a difference between an archive and a PST ?

An archive is a PST but it is not an image of a PST in use. Instead it
contains old data that have been removed from an active PST so as to keep
the original PST more manageable. You don't back up or duplicate a PST
using archive functions.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I'll reformaulate my question

I said :
"The only thing I can see him doing is an archive of all his mails
into a PST."

And you replied :
"No. Archives are not suited to this purpose."

In an OUtlook context, "archive" has a particular meaning. It is a way of
keeping the contents of an active PST manageable by removing older items,
storing them in a second PST that is not actively open but available for
reference if you need to access the older data.

Then you said :
"If he wants his Exchange data at home without taking the laptop, he
can create a new PST (File>New>Outlook Data File) and copy the
contents of his Exchange mailbox to that PST."


OK, I can see that creating an archive is rather more laborious and
that creating a new empty file is a more straighforward method, and
in future I shall
probably adopt your method.
But - just for curiosity's sake - would there be any difference in
the end result between the two PSTs ??

An archive is not a mirror image of the active PST.