Theoretical question about OST files on a FAT32 partition

[Fabien Delpierre]

I had this random thought the other day: as many of you will probably know,
FAT32 does not support files larger than (2^32)-1 bytes -- or ~4 GB -- yet it
is not uncommon, especially in corporate environments, for Exchange mailboxes
to be bigger than that.

Since working in Cached Exchange Mode is a common thing, what happens if,
due to lack of knowledge or foresight on the part of whoever put your
computer together, your mailbox -- and thus your OST file -- grows larger
than 4 GB on a FAT32 partition?

I realize FAT32 will simply not allow the file to grow past what FAT32
supports, but does anybody know how Outlook behaves in such a case?

Like I said, just a theoretical -- and admittedly unlikely in this day and
age -- thought...

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Outlook would stop syncing it. Filters can be set on the ost so only
certain items sync, to keep it smaller. Everything would be accessible from
classic mode or owa.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

 

[Ben M. Schorr, MVP]

Or they could just convert the drive, non-destructively, to NTFS.

--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
http://www.officeforlawyers.com/outlook.html
Author: The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/ol4law-amazon

Outlook would stop syncing it. Filters can be set on the ost so only
certain items sync, to keep it smaller. Everything would be accessible
from classic mode or owa.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

I had this random thought the other day: as many of you will probably
know,
FAT32 does not support files larger than (2^32)-1 bytes -- or ~4 GB --
yet it
is not uncommon, especially in corporate environments, for Exchange
mailboxes
to be bigger than that.

Since working in Cached Exchange Mode is a common thing, what happens if,
due to lack of knowledge or foresight on the part of whoever put your
computer together, your mailbox -- and thus your OST file -- grows larger
than 4 GB on a FAT32 partition?

I realize FAT32 will simply not allow the file to grow past what FAT32
supports, but does anybody know how Outlook behaves in such a case?

Like I said, just a theoretical -- and admittedly unlikely in this day
and
age -- thought...