PST 2GB - WHY?

[Florian Forster]

HI NG,
I found so many articles, about the 2 GB barrier for .pst files and how to
split large files and so on - but I didn't find an y artcile WHY there is
2GB restriction - does anyone know where I can fin informations, why your
pst file shouldn't get bigger the 2GB?

br,
Florian

 

[Gordon]

HI NG,
I found so many articles, about the 2 GB barrier for .pst files and
how to split large files and so on - but I didn't find an y artcile
WHY there is 2GB restriction - does anyone know where I can fin
informations, why your pst file shouldn't get bigger the 2GB?

br,
Florian

I'll tell you why - Outlook won't work if the pst file is gigger than 2GB!
That's the reason. Actually it starts to get flakey round about 1.8 GB. And
anyway, isn't *2GB* of email more than enough for anyone?

 

[Florian Forster]

come on gordon,
that's not the kind of answer I need - a little more technical would be
good - I know that it won't work - but WHY????
And yes, you're right I also think 2GB should be enough - but asking the
users 20GB would be okay ... ;-)

Florian

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Microsoft does not disclose technical information on its proprietary file formats, but the older .pst format goes back to at least 1994, when PC hardware was quite different from what it is today. Outlook 2003 has 20GB as its default max PST size and can go up to 33Tb.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Brian Tillman]

I found so many articles, about the 2 GB barrier for .pst files and
how to split large files and so on - but I didn't find an y artcile
WHY there is 2GB restriction - does anyone know where I can fin
informations, why your pst file shouldn't get bigger the 2GB?

Here's what I believe. It's due to a limitation in the structures that were
used when PSTs were first designed. A 32 bit signed integer's maximum size
is 2^32-1 = 2GB. Since 32 bit integers are what provided accessibility into
the various parts of the PST, it couldn't exceed 2GB.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

or in plain English, when it was designed, the maximum file size supported
by the OS was 2 Gb.

 

[Brian Tillman]

or in plain English, when it was designed, the maximum file size
supported by the OS was 2 Gb.

For FAT16 file systems, not only the largest file, but the largest disk
partion was 2GB. FOr FAT32, I think the largest any file could be was (is)
4GB, unless otherwise limited by the application.

 

[Florian Forster]

That's the kind of answer I needed ;-)
Thanx!

Here's what I believe. It's due to a limitation in the structures that
were used when PSTs were first designed. A 32 bit signed integer's
maximum size is 2^32-1 = 2GB. Since 32 bit integers are what provided
accessibility into the various parts of the PST, it couldn't exceed 2GB.