Outlook 2003 PST Management

[Ryan Laurie]

I have multiple lawyers that use Outlook 2003 with at least SP2 and some with
SP3. Now the new trend is to keep every e-mail they receive as a record.
I'm not happy about it and I wouldn't like this to occur but they are not
going to change. Is there a program or a way that will reduce the size of
the mailbox without having to create a ton of additional PST files? They
also have multiple folders. I don't want to be like a secretary and organize
everyone's e-mailbox. My friend has an Apple Mac and he tells me that there
is a program for his Mac email where it archives it into a database and
shrinks the size of his past e-mails. What is there for Outlook because I
need some direction with this problem? What are other people doing with this
issue that doesn’t have an Exchange server; I can’t be the only one? Please
help, Ryan.

 

[Pat Willener]

AutoArchive will archive on a regular basis into a single PST file. I
have all my email messages since 1995 in an archive PST file, and it's
no trouble at all.

Reducing the size of the current mailbox depends on the account type.

 

[Ryan Laurie]

The archive file is getting to big also. Some also have multiple folders.
The 2 PST file system will still get out of hand. Why isn't there a way to
shrink the file down without relying on the auto archive PST or creating a
new ones? I'm dealing with lawyers who are passing a large number of
attachments, it's not just simple e-mail messages.

 

[Jocelyn Fiorello]

Have you tried compacting the .PST files? Make sure the Deleted Items folder
is empty, then go into Properties for the file and click Advanced, then
Compact Now. If there is any "white space" in the file before compacting, it
will be eliminated.

If you don't want to do this manually take a look through the Addins
sections of http://www.slipstick.com and see if any of the 3rd party
solutions listed there will work for you.

 

[DL]

FWIW there are addins available which strip any attachments from a msg,
whist maintaining a link, and allow the attachment to be stored at another
location, outside the pst. They remain available with the origonal msg.
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/index.htm

 

[Brian Tillman]

The archive file is getting to big also. Some also have multiple
folders. The 2 PST file system will still get out of hand. Why isn't
there a way to shrink the file down without relying on the auto
archive PST or creating a new ones? I'm dealing with lawyers who are
passing a large number of attachments, it's not just simple e-mail
messages.

If you have a 25 pound grocery bag full of groceries, you wopuldn't expect
to be able to those groceries in a ten pound bag with removing some of the
groceries, would you? Likewise, unless you remove data from the PST, you
won't be able to shrink it. That's the purpose of autoarchive. You'll need
a PST to hold the archive, however. No getting around that.

There are attachment processing add-ins you can purchase as well that will
remove attachment from Outlook messages and keep them in file system (not
Outlook) folders, which should reduce the amount of space in the PST or
mailbox (depending on whether you're using Exchange or not).

 

[Ryan Laurie]

What is the one or one's that you recommend. I am having a hard time finding
the right one. Some are talking about zipping up sending e-mails. I just
want the one that extracts the attachment out of the message that currently
exist. Thanks for all the help.

 

[DL]

http://www.slipstick.com/addins/attachments.asp

I tried the Mapi Lab tool some time ago.
I dont have any specific reccomendations as I find I dont really need such a
tool

 

[Pat Willener]

What is "to big" (too big) - 2GB? 10GB? 100GB? The 2003 PST files do
not have any real size limit, so who decides what is too big?

Place the file on a separate partition or HD, format it as NTFS with
64kb clusters, and the file will never fragment. There will be no
problem for Outlook. Let these lawyers do what they need; Outlook can
handle it.

 

[Lex De Leuke]

What is "to big" (too big) - 2GB? 10GB? 100GB? The 2003 PST files do
not have any real size limit, so who decides what is too big?

Place the file on a separate partition or HD, format it as NTFS with
64kb clusters, and the file will never fragment. There will be no
problem forOutlook. Let these lawyers do what they need;Outlookcan
handle it.






- Tekst uit oorspronkelijk bericht weergeven -

I did a search on thirth party software as well. Strip attachments or
move them out of the email is a very bad idea, I think.
At my company we have choosen for arching every email as msg file in a
directory (using mailtofile.com found on slipstick).
We do have directories for every project and for every customer. Now
email is archived in there as well, together with Worddocuments etc.
And after archiving it as msg file you can delete it from your
Outlook.
Exchange and/or pst files will never be too big. Every email is
archived only once and directly at sending, not at the end of the day.
Our projectmanagers can easily see all email correspondence in these
directories
And once a project is finished all digital files (inclusing email) are
archived together! In the old days we needed to backup big pst files,
and archive those pst files to keep the project archive complete. But
every pst file did contain much more email (of other projects). This
problem is gone now.