Saving/archiving/exporting/backing up Email and calendar files

[Guest]

We are having a bit of a debate about how best to backup/archive files from
Outlook. Ths answer is of greatest interest to support staff who manage
files for several managers and may be asked to retrieve messages and calendar
entries from any one or several of them. For them, the preferred solution
would allow searching folders for sevreal owners simultaneously, or, barring
concurrency, off a server from their own workstation rather than individual
PCs or a library of CD-ROMs or DVDs.

We are familiar with MSoft's position opposing file shares because of
corruption and performance concerns. However, when we test archiving and
exporting to file shares, it seems to work fine - exporting possibly the
better of the two (in fact, the Excel Import and Export look remarkably
faithful to the data in the files). A staff member also has found a free
downlaod from MSoft for backups of .pst files.

I would appreciate comments on the experiences people have had with any of
these options, including ones on the tradeoffs they present. Merci.

 

[Brian Tillman]

We are having a bit of a debate about how best to backup/archive
files from Outlook.

Don't confuse archiving with backups.

Ths answer is of greatest interest to support
staff who manage files for several managers and may be asked to
retrieve messages and calendar entries from any one or several of
them. For them, the preferred solution would allow searching folders
for sevreal owners simultaneously, or, barring concurrency, off a
server from their own workstation rather than individual PCs or a
library of CD-ROMs or DVDs.

A PST can be accessed by at most one Outlook instance at any one time. The
easiest way to back up is to close Outlook and copy the PST to a safe place,
like a network share. Outlook's PFBACKUP add-in allows this copying to
occur on a schedule and you can have it set to copy every day so that when a
person exists Outlook a copy of his or her PST will be created on a network
share. As an alternative, you can also replace the shortcut to Outlook with
a shortcut to a batch file that first copies the PST to a network share and
then starts Outlook.

We are familiar with MSoft's position opposing file shares because of
corruption and performance concerns. However, when we test archiving
and exporting to file shares, it seems to work fine - exporting
possibly the better of the two (in fact, the Excel Import and Export
look remarkably faithful to the data in the files).

Exporting and importing are fraught with problems when used for backing up.
It loses data. Copying the PST when Outlook is closed is the only way to
make a truly faithful backup.

A better way to handle it might be to use an Exchange server and then
backing up the server takes care of everyone at once.

 

[Guest]

Brian,

Am I correct in assuming you mean copying the .pst file from one's hard
drive to a file share when you suggest a backup after Outlook is closed?
Also, from what I can gather about Exchange 2007 and the associated records
retention capabilites it may bring, it appears the approach there may well be
along the lines of your second suggestion - some kind of shared mailbox.

Finally. It is not clear why an export is so risky given that the option to
do so is provided within Outlook.n Can you ampplify?

Merci.

 

[DL]

Snip from MVP post earlier


All of these answers have been posted here countless times. Never hurts to
read before posting.
Importing an entire PST will corrupt your Outlook profile. Importing PST's
will lose:
1. Custom Forms
2. Custom Views
3. Connections between contacts and activities
4. Received dates on mail
5. Birthdays and anniversaries in calendar
6. Journal connections
7. Distribution Lists
Opening a PST file will preserve all of these. That is why we do not advise
people to import a native file into Outlook

 

[Brian Tillman]

Am I correct in assuming you mean copying the .pst file from one's
hard drive to a file share when you suggest a backup after Outlook is
closed?

You are.

Also, from what I can gather about Exchange 2007 and the
associated records retention capabilites it may bring, it appears the
approach there may well be along the lines of your second suggestion
- some kind of shared mailbox.

Public folders are excellent ways to share data.

Finally. It is not clear why an export is so risky given that the
option to do so is provided within Outlook.n Can you ampplify?

DL explains it.

 

[Guest]

Brian,

Thanks for the added feedback - very helpful.