.pst approaching 700 Mb

  • Thread starter Thread starter baltobernie
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baltobernie

My next Outlook 2002 backup will not fit on one CD.

1. Will Windows tell me that all data will not fit on one CD, and prompt me
to insert another disc when the first is full?

2. ... or is there some procedure to (permanently) relocate Deleted Items,
for example, to another folder, and backup this data separately. The
ability to restore in the event of catastrophic computer failure is
paramount.

Bernie
 
baltobernie said:
My next Outlook 2002 backup will not fit on one CD.

1. Will Windows tell me that all data will not fit on one CD, and
prompt me to insert another disc when the first is full?
Click to expand...

If you're using Windows XP, it should tell you when your selected files will
exceed the CD capacity, but I don't believe it handles switching discs.
2. ... or is there some procedure to (permanently) relocate Deleted
Items, for example, to another folder, and backup this data
separately. The ability to restore in the event of catastrophic
computer failure is paramount.
Click to expand...

You should NOT be storing anything in Deleted Items that you have an
interest in retaining. All of the individual default folders are always
contained with in the same PST. You can't have, say, the default Inbox and
Calendar in one PST and the Contacts and Tasks in another. You can,
however, move items from the default folders to one or more PSTs as you
wish, with tools like Lookout allowing you to find the items quickly, even
across multiple PSTs. By keeping items in multiple PSTs you can always keep
those PSTs within the data capacity of your removable drives. You can also
consider adding a DVD writer to your PC, where the data capacity is 4.7 GB.
DVD writers have gotten much more affordable that even a year ago.
 
Brian Tillman said:
If you're using Windows XP, it should tell you when your selected files
will exceed the CD capacity, but I don't believe it handles switching
discs.


You should NOT be storing anything in Deleted Items that you have an
interest in retaining.
Click to expand...

How would you suggest keeping copies of all e-mails, as required
by my employer?

All of the individual default folders are always
contained with in the same PST. You can't have, say, the default Inbox
and Calendar in one PST and the Contacts and Tasks in another. You can,
however, move items from the default folders to one or more PSTs as you
wish, with tools like Lookout allowing you to find the items quickly, even
across multiple PSTs.
Click to expand...

Could you restate this? The two sentences seem to conflict; I
can have more than
one PST, but not the default Inbox in one and Contacts in
another?

Please explain the steps necessary to create another PST in
Outlook 2002,
where I could store my Archived Deleted Items.

I did check out lookoutsoft.com, and this would be useful to
search among
these newly-created PSTs. This utility appears similar to
Google
Desktop search, which would then become redundant on my PC.

Bernie (remove numerals to Reply)


By keeping items in multiple PSTs you can always keep
 
The obvious solution here is to get a DVD burner .... the best,
name-brand ones are down to $60's, and will burn all formats including
all variants of + and -, single and dual layer. My recommendation is
the Pioneer 110 series (there are a number of different drives in this
series, so know what you are getting). Two comments:

-DO NOT use "RW" media of any time. It has poor long-term stability and
data loss is common

-Don't use dual layer media unless you really have to. So far I've had
pretty good luck with the few times I've used it, but I don't consider
it's long-term reliability proven yet. If yo do use it, stick with
Verbatim brand (the only DL media approved by several drive makers) and
a 2.4X recording speed. DL media is expensive (was $6 per disc, but
I've seen it for $2/disc more recently), but being able to get 9 gigs on
a single media does come in handy at times.

Also, Roxio (Easy CD Creator / Easy Media Creator) will automatically
"span" data across multiple CDs if a layout won't fit on a single CD. I
don't like the way that it does it, it's not a clean solution, but it
will work.

Another option, you could use a "Zip" program (Winzip, etc.) to compress
the PST file prior to burning.

Don't EVER keep things in the "deleted items" folder that you want to
save. Create a file structure for filing things if you want to use
Outlook for that purpose. My own PST file is nearly 600MB and I have
tens of thousands of messages in hundreds of folders. Note that on many
if not most computers, the "Deleted Items" folder is automatically
emptied and lost forever every time you exit Outlook (this is a
configuration option that can be turned on or off).
 
Hi Barry,

Thanks for your input.

I will never, ever buy another Roxio product, after it crashed and burned a
previous PC during installation. I had to reformat the hard drive and start
over. Cost me two days.

The external drive is beginning to look like the easiest choice ...

Bernie
 
The external drive is a good choice if you don't want to burn optical
media. But when I see the word(s) "backup" in a request, I tend to
think of permanent or semi-permanent backup, not simply a copy on a hard
drive (even if it's a 2nd hard drive).

No version of Roxio has systematically done what you experienced on a
large scale (I was a beta tester for what was then Corel CD Creator back
in 1995, through about 2003 as it went through Corel, Adaptec, Roxio and
now Sonic).

Software products can encounter unexpected and unforseen conflicts with
either other software, with specific system hardware configurations and
with unusual configurations. It happens (and, sometimes, the problem is
defective hardware, or ANOTHER installed software product that is buggy,
corrupt or damaged). You just can't (or shouldn't, anyway) "ban a
software vendor for life" just because you happened to have a single
"incident". Versions 5, 6 and 7 of Adaptec/Roxio have been pretty good.
However, with both Roxio and Nero, you ***MUST*** apply the online
updates. More so than with almost any other class of software product,
it's important to keep these products updated.
 
baltobernie said:
How would you suggest keeping copies of all e-mails, as
required by my employer?
Click to expand...

Keep them in one or more separate PSTs.
Could you restate this? The two sentences seem to
conflict; I can have more than
one PST, but not the default Inbox in one and Contacts in
another?
Click to expand...

You can have many PSTs. Only one, however, can be designated as the
delivery location and that one is where the default folders will reside.
You can have any kind of folders you choose in the other PSTs, but they
won't be the default folders and they will not be "active"; i.e., Outlook
won't deliver messages there (1), won't save appointments there (2), and
won't remind you if anything in those folders.
Please explain the steps necessary to create another PST in
Outlook 2002,
where I could store my Archived Deleted Items.
Click to expand...

File>New>Outlook Data File. Don't store your "archived" messages in ANY
folder named "Deleted Items". Create one or more folders whose names relate
to the topics of the messages, or the year you received them, or the people
who sent them, or the project to which they pertyain, or any filing system
meaningful to you, but if you intend to keep them, DON'T put them in
Outlook's equivalent of the trash if they're not trash.
I did check out lookoutsoft.com, and this would be useful
to search among
these newly-created PSTs. This utility appears similar to
Google
Desktop search, which would then become redundant on my PC.
Click to expand...

Google Desktop Search can conflict with Outlook from time to time, but it
does much the same thing as Lookout, so you wouldn't need both. How was I
to know you had GDS already? You never mentioned it.

(1) You can, of course move messages that arrive in your single main Inbox
to other folders, including those in other PSTs, manually or by rules.

(2) If you have one of the non-default folders open and you click New and
specify the type of item that the open folder can contain, then the new item
will be stored when you save it in that folder and not the default folder in
the delivery location PST. For example, if you have a fodler named "2004
Calendar" in a second PST and it contains calendar items, if you open that
folder and then click New>Appointment, the appointment you create will be
store in "2004 Calendar" when you save it and not in "Calendar" in your main
PST. If you create a new item of any type that the currently open folder
cannot contain (like a New>Task when you have a mail folder open), the item
you create will be stored in the appropriate folder in the delivery location
PST and not the open folder.

I hope that's clear.
 
We're in agreement regarding "permanent" backups. I'll check out the
Pioneer 110.

The lockup I experienced was with Adaptec, an internal Sony drive, and
Windows 98. The problem may very well have been caused by a conflict with
the previously-installed Sony backup software, but that doesn't excuse that
"F/U" attitude I got from everybody at Adaptec's tech support. The
ruthlessness of a free market allows the consumer the luxury of placing the
errant supplier on the bottom of his list.

Bernie
 
Brian Tillman said:
Keep them in one or more separate PSTs.


You can have many PSTs. Only one, however, can be designated as the
delivery location and that one is where the default folders will reside.
You can have any kind of folders you choose in the other PSTs, but they
won't be the default folders and they will not be "active"; i.e., Outlook
won't deliver messages there (1), won't save appointments there (2), and
won't remind you if anything in those folders.


File>New>Outlook Data File. Don't store your "archived" messages in ANY
folder named "Deleted Items". Create one or more folders whose names
relate to the topics of the messages, or the year you received them, or
the people who sent them, or the project to which they pertyain, or any
filing system meaningful to you, but if you intend to keep them, DON'T put
them in Outlook's equivalent of the trash if they're not trash.


Google Desktop Search can conflict with Outlook from time to time, but it
does much the same thing as Lookout, so you wouldn't need both. How was I
to know you had GDS already? You never mentioned it.

(1) You can, of course move messages that arrive in your single main Inbox
to other folders, including those in other PSTs, manually or by rules.

(2) If you have one of the non-default folders open and you click New and
specify the type of item that the open folder can contain, then the new
item will be stored when you save it in that folder and not the default
folder in the delivery location PST. For example, if you have a fodler
named "2004 Calendar" in a second PST and it contains calendar items, if
you open that folder and then click New>Appointment, the appointment you
create will be store in "2004 Calendar" when you save it and not in
"Calendar" in your main PST. If you create a new item of any type that
the currently open folder cannot contain (like a New>Task when you have a
mail folder open), the item you create will be stored in the appropriate
folder in the delivery location PST and not the open folder.

I hope that's clear.
Click to expand...

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the clear explaination. I'm afraid, however, that I'm still
going to need an external DVD-ROM, unless you have a solution to the
following:

As I suspected, with over 5,000 e-mails, my Archived Deleted Items folder
consumes more than 400 Mb. I was able to create a "Preservation e-mail"
folder and back this up. However, even after emptying the default ADI
folder, attempting to back up my .pst still put me over the 700 Mb CD-R
limit. In other words, this new "Preservation" folder still resides in the
directory tree underneath the Archive label.

I could, of course, empty the Preservation folder, since I have its contents
on CD. But sometimes I need to refer to correspondence older than 90 days,
which is approximately the default Outlook setting for moving items from
Deleted to ADI.

Is there some way to segregate this Preservation folder from the Archive
directory, yet having it available to search (and Open, Reply, etc.) within
Outlook?

Bernie
 
baltobernie said:
As I suspected, with over 5,000 e-mails, my Archived Deleted Items
folder consumes more than 400 Mb. I was able to create a
"Preservation e-mail" folder and back this up. However, even after
emptying the default ADI folder, attempting to back up my .pst still
put me over the 700 Mb CD-R limit.
Click to expand...

If you actually removed messages from a PST, not just moved them between one
folder and another within the same PST, compressing the PST will release the
freed space to te file system, reducing the physical size of the PST.
In other words, this new
"Preservation" folder still resides in the directory tree underneath
the Archive label.
Click to expand...

Then it's really still in the same PST.
Is there some way to segregate this Preservation folder from the
Archive directory, yet having it available to search (and Open,
Reply, etc.) within Outlook?
Click to expand...

Sure. Put it in a new PST by itself and have that PST open in Outlook as
well. Searching across PSTs from within Outlook isn't possible (you have to
search one at a time), but, again, Lookout from Microsoft will ease that
task considerably, since it CAN span multiple PSTs.
 
Brian Tillman said:
If you actually removed messages from a PST, not just moved them between
one folder and another within the same PST, compressing the PST will
release the freed space to te file system, reducing the physical size of
the PST.


Then it's really still in the same PST.


Sure. Put it in a new PST by itself and have that PST open in Outlook as
well. Searching across PSTs from within Outlook isn't possible (you have
to search one at a time), but, again, Lookout from Microsoft will ease
that task considerably, since it CAN span multiple PSTs.
Click to expand...


Brian,

I must have misunderstood your instructions from the previous posting. In
Outlook, I did File>New>Outlook Data File. I got a dialog box titled "Types
of Storage" and default "pst". Save location is Outlook. What am I doing
wrong?

Bernie
 
baltobernie said:
I must have misunderstood your instructions from the previous
posting. In Outlook, I did File>New>Outlook Data File. I got a
dialog box titled "Types of Storage" and default "pst". Save
location is Outlook. What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...

Nothing so far. Give it a name or accept the default, which should be
"Personal Folders". I'd choose a different name. You can change the path
where the file will be saved, too, if you want. Once you;ve specified these
things, click OK. You'll now be given a PST properties dialogue where you
can give the new PST a display name (i.e., the name Outlook will show you in
the Folder List when it's open). Choose one or accept the default, but I'd
give it a distinct name. Click OK and your second PST will now show in
Outlook's folder list. MOve whatever you want to that new PST. You can
move individual items or entire folders. When you're done, right-click
Outlook Today (your default folders), choose Properties, then Advanced, and
click Compact Now. Your original PST will get smaller by the (about) amount
you moved to the second PST.
 
your second PST will now show in
Outlook's folder list. MOve whatever you want to that new PST. You can
move individual items or entire folders. When you're done, right-click
Outlook Today (your default folders), choose Properties, then Advanced,
and click Compact Now. Your original PST will get smaller by the (about)
amount you moved to the second PST.
Click to expand...

"Compact" did the trick.

My directory tree has Archive at the top, so the contents of this new
"Preservation" folder are contained in C:\Documents and Settings\~Outlook.
So when I do a backup, I put "Preservation" on one CD, and the other folders
(except "Archive") on another. I should be able to restore the complete
data set in the usual fashion if catastrophe strikes. Of course, doing
regular backups sends Murphy somewhere else, just like having an inflated
spare and a jack guarantees never getting a flat.

Thanks for your help. There will be a bit of manual finagling; adding
contents of Microsoft's "Archive Deleted Items" to my "Preservation" folder,
then emptying MS ADI folder, but that's easy enough to remember.

I wouldn't have gone to all this effort had this laptop been newer. Since
its two years old, and we replace them every three, I didn't want to spend
$200 on a DVD-ROM, because I'll order one on my new machine next year. By
then, if both backup CDs are reaching their limits, I now know how to
dismember them further!

Bernie
 
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