How to free up disk space from deleted Outlook files

[John]

I have Outlook 2002 (10.6515...) SP3 on XP w/SP2. I use POP3 (not MAPI) and
store messages on my local computer. I need to free up some hard disk space.
Is there anything I can do within Outlook to make sure that Outlook frees up
disk space from the email messages I have already deleted?

Does Outlook automatically purge deleted email from my hard drive when I
"empty the Deleted Items" mailbox? Please tell me what I can do to make sure
my Deleted Items messages are removed my from hard disk, to free up as much
disk space as possible. Please tell me what other steps I can take to
regularly reduce the size of Outlook messages/files that I want to keep in my
mailboxes. I want all of my email messages that I store in individual
mailboxes readily available at all times, however.

Thank you. John

 

[Gordon]

John wrote:
|| I have Outlook 2002 (10.6515...) SP3 on XP w/SP2. I use POP3 (not
|| MAPI) and store messages on my local computer. I need to free up
|| some hard disk space. Is there anything I can do within Outlook to
|| make sure that Outlook frees up disk space from the email messages I
|| have already deleted?
||
|| Does Outlook automatically purge deleted email from my hard drive
|| when I "empty the Deleted Items" mailbox? Please tell me what I can
|| do to make sure my Deleted Items messages are removed my from hard
|| disk, to free up as much disk space as possible. Please tell me
|| what other steps I can take to regularly reduce the size of Outlook
|| messages/files that I want to keep in my mailboxes. I want all of my
|| email messages that I store in individual mailboxes readily
|| available at all times, however.
||
|| Thank you. John

When you delete a message in Outlook, the space that that message took up
isn't automatically reduced. You need to compact your pst file.
Right-click on "Outlook Today" in the Folders pane, choose Properties, click
on "Advanced" and click on "Compact Now".

HTH

 

[John]

Gordon, thank you for your reply.

If I click on "Compact Now" as you suggest, will this cause future
accesses/reads to these mailboxes to be slower than if I didn't compact the
mailboxes? (I don't want to degrade performance at all.)

John

 

[Brian Tillman]

If I click on "Compact Now" as you suggest, will this cause future
accesses/reads to these mailboxes to be slower than if I didn't
compact the mailboxes? (I don't want to degrade performance at all.)

It won't slow down future reads, although it can (slightly) impact adding
new items, since Outlook would need to go to the file system for additional
allocation if there is no empty space in the PST in which to place an item.
This condition would be temporary as items get added and deleted over time.