How much data is too much data?

[Jameseee]

We are using Outlook 2003. My boss refuses to delete anything -- ever.
Even Deleted Items has an auto-archive setting that moves items in this
folder to its very own PST file. Her Outlook profile becomes corrupted on a
regular basis and has to be recreated every 3-6 months.

She has a constant stream of problems with Outlook but those problems are
never evident when I go to look. It's always just her vague description of
a problem that may not be a problem at all, but just her impatience because
she is, after all, the busiest person in the world and has no time for
computer problems, but has 20 minutes to tell you that she has no time for
computer problems. She puts one contact into three different Contacts
folders and screams because there are three listings in the Address Book for
this person and would I just fix it so that this doesn't happen again. Can
you tell I'm frustrated?

Anyway, we are on a remote Exchange Server with a Mailbox limit of 100MB.
Mailbox size is kept at approximately 50MB with auto-archive. The Exchange
Mailbox is not the problem.

Locally, she has a Personal Folders file with 1.8GB -- An Archive Folders
file with 1.7GB -- A Deleted Items file with 800MB -- and an Old Archive
Folders file (items older than 2002) with 1.9GB of data. All of the
attached files have already been removed from these PST files. All PST
files are open in the Folder List and ready for her use. I tried to close
the really old ones (Deleted Items and Old Archive) so that she could open
them if she needed them, but that was way too much work because she might
need them and won't have the enormous amount of time it would take to go
open them.

It really is time for a new job.

So, the real question is when is too much data really too much data for
Outlook to handle? Is there any evidence that a meltdown is imminent if she
continues on this course of action? At the moment, she is telling me that
Outlook is going Offline many times throughout the day (but no one else has
complained, and they would have, so it is just her experiencing this
problem). I suspect that her Outlook profile may be corrupted again, but I
have not actually seen any problems; only what she has told me.

Is it possible that in trying to handle this amount of data, the Outlook
profile would repeatedly become corrupted? I handle 65 other users with
zero other Outlook problems, so it isn't like I have no idea what I'm doing.


I firmly believe that she just wants to keep everything forever and Outlook
just can't handle this kind of data overload. But, is this true? And, if
so, what is a realistic limit on the amount of data (how many PST files
containing how much data) that Outlook can reliably handle at one time.

Can anyone shed some light?

Thanks.

James

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

Comments inline to your post...

We are using Outlook 2003. My boss refuses to delete anything -- ever.
Even Deleted Items has an auto-archive setting that moves items in this
folder to its very own PST file. Her Outlook profile becomes corrupted on
a
regular basis and has to be recreated every 3-6 months.

She has a constant stream of problems with Outlook but those problems are
never evident when I go to look. It's always just her vague description
of
a problem that may not be a problem at all, but just her impatience
because
she is, after all, the busiest person in the world and has no time for
computer problems, but has 20 minutes to tell you that she has no time for
computer problems. She puts one contact into three different Contacts
folders and screams because there are three listings in the Address Book
for
this person and would I just fix it so that this doesn't happen again.
Can
you tell I'm frustrated?
Yep.

Anyway, we are on a remote Exchange Server with a Mailbox limit of 100MB.
Mailbox size is kept at approximately 50MB with auto-archive. The
Exchange
Mailbox is not the problem.

Locally, she has a Personal Folders file with 1.8GB -- An Archive Folders
file with 1.7GB -- A Deleted Items file with 800MB -- and an Old Archive
Folders file (items older than 2002) with 1.9GB of data. All of the
attached files have already been removed from these PST files. All PST
files are open in the Folder List and ready for her use. I tried to close
the really old ones (Deleted Items and Old Archive) so that she could open
them if she needed them, but that was way too much work because she might
need them and won't have the enormous amount of time it would take to go
open them.

It really is time for a new job.

So, the real question is when is too much data really too much data for
Outlook to handle? Is there any evidence that a meltdown is imminent if
she
continues on this course of action? At the moment, she is telling me that
Outlook is going Offline many times throughout the day (but no one else
has
complained, and they would have, so it is just her experiencing this
problem). I suspect that her Outlook profile may be corrupted again, but
I
have not actually seen any problems; only what she has told me.

Outlook 2003 is the first version of Outlook to support 2 different types of
PST files. The legacy (Outlook 97/2002) PST is limted in how many items per
folder and the overall size of the file. (1.8GB max file size. 65,000 items
per folder, 65,000 folders per folder) So if the "boss" is playing the CYA
factor and using these, its only a matter of time before there is a meltdown
and you are blamed for something else (like why aren't you backing up the
"C" drive nightly).

Outlook 2003's other PST format (known as Office Outlook Personal Folders
file) is the big kahuna of PST files. This file has a software limit of
20GB and can grow bigger by changing a registry key. Not sure how many
items it can hold, but it should be more than any mere mortal needs. About
the only sticky wicket I see is when this file is used on a FAT32 drive.
FAT32 doesn't let a single file grow beyond 4GB.

Is it possible that in trying to handle this amount of data, the Outlook
profile would repeatedly become corrupted? I handle 65 other users with
zero other Outlook problems, so it isn't like I have no idea what I'm
doing.

Outlook 2003 can handle it, but the bigger the file goes one should expect a
performance hit. For example, can you imaging the file needing to be
scanned by desktop av before being opened (exclude them from real-time
scanning by the way).

The other thing about any file on a drive is that over time, it can become
corrupted. That is just the nature of reading/writing to a drive many,
many, many, and did I say many times over the avg life span of a business
desktop (say 5yrs).

I firmly believe that she just wants to keep everything forever and
Outlook
just can't handle this kind of data overload. But, is this true? And, if
so, what is a realistic limit on the amount of data (how many PST files
containing how much data) that Outlook can reliably handle at one time.

Can anyone shed some light?

About the boss... sure. There are no technological solutions for human
behavior problems.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Bosses... gotta love 'em.

Locally, she has a Personal Folders file with 1.8GB -- An Archive Folders
file with 1.7GB --

Was the pst created with an older version of Outlook? Outlook 2003 supports
Unicode and the psts can grow to 20 GB (more if you edit a reg key). ANSI
pst's are 2 GB max - and we don't recommend going over about 1.8GB.

I would probably create her a new profile and let outlook make Unicode
psts - but you'll probably never hear the end of it when some settings are
back on default. So... remove all of the pst's from the profile and
create new ones to use with it - do not choose the pst format that works
with OL97/2002. Rename the archive pst and let autoarchive make a new one.

Or, better yet, and to insure the mail gets backed up, I'd probably remove
the mailbox size limit so she doesn't need to use pst's.

Even Deleted Items has an auto-archive setting that moves items in this
folder to its very own PST file.

Hmmm... did I talk to you at TechEd or is archiving deleted items a common
problem? (Why in the heck do people bother to delete them if they are going
to archive them?)


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

so, what is a realistic limit on the amount of data (how many PST files

containing how much data) that Outlook can reliably handle at one time.

BTW - you can have like 50 -60 and some people have 150 pst's in a profile.
They are nuts... IMHO. Too many folders and/or too many psts and it's too
easy to lose messages because you forget where you filed them. She needs to
learn to use views, categories, and search folders to manage her mail and
use just a handful of folders.

Speaking of categories, she should use them instead of multiple contacts
folders... and if all mail is kept in her mailbox, she can use Activities
tab on the contact to find messages, meeting requests etc from that person.



--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/