Outlook 2007 - compacted but still 300MB of white space?

[Alex]

The file size on the hard disk of my Outlook 2007 pst file is 657MB. However
when I go into Outlook/Properties/Folder Size it indicates it is only 386MB.
The sizes of the subfolders are consistent with 386MB.

I have run Compact several times. The first time it did bring it down from
750MB to the 657MB. But it will do nothing further.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks,
--Alex

 

[Sheeloo]

Try...
1. Close Outlook
2. Copy the pst file
3. Check the size
4. If it is close to what you want then rename the original to backup.pst
and rename the copy to the original copy
5. Open Outlook

 

[Alex]

Sheeloo,

Thank you for the idea, but it did not work.

I closed Outlook and made sure the process was ended. I then made a copy of
the pst file and it is also 657MB.

I also looked at the properties for the pst file using windows explorer (or
whatever they call it under Vista now) and it shows that both the "size" and
the "size on disk" are both 657MB.

--Alex

 

[Sheeloo]

Sorry it did not work.

Try one more thing;
Create a new pst
Move your mails to the corresponding folders in the new pst file
Check the size...If your original one has 'holes' then the size of the new
one should be smaller.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Try...
1. Close Outlook
2. Copy the pst file
3. Check the size
4. If it is close to what you want then rename the original to backup.pst
and rename the copy to the original copy
5. Open Outlook

An excellent way to corrupt the mail profile.

 

[Alex]

Sheeloo,

That worked. I exported the Personal Folder and all subfolders into a new
pst file. It is only 450MB, so over 200MB smaller. Renamed the Outlook.pst
file to a new name. Renamed the new pst file Outlook.pst.

Opened it in outlook and waited for it to reindex.

Looks to me like everything is there and the size is much more reasonable.

Thanks for the idea.

--Alex

 

[Pat Willener]

My exporting your date (as opposed to copy/move) you probably lost some
data. It is never a good idea to export or import PST file data.

If you still have your original PST file, try again (with a new PST
file) to copy/move your data (using drag-and-drop within Outlook). Your
new PST file may be even smaller now, but you will have your complete
data, including all attributes.

 

[Pat Willener]

Sentence should have started "By exporting your data..."