Over 500 PSTs on 1 PC

[Robbzilla]

I have a user who's been migrated to a new machine. Her old one was
Dell GX270 with about 256MB RAM and XP SP2 and Outlook 2003. The new H
has the same software, but has 2GB RAM and is a new dual-core job.

The user has 563 PSTs. I wish I were exagerrating. She literally ha
some of these with 1 email in them. She has all of them "opened" i
outlook (By that I mean she has them loaded, but not all are expanded)
And... surprise, surprise, she's getting a lot of corruption in th
PSTs, giving her problems opening emails and personal folder
constantly.

Here's the kicker: The original machine runs them just fine. It's ol
and slow, but it chugs along and doesn't seem plagued with this issue
She has all of the files open in the same manner, and works.

Intensely frustrating, let me tell you. She refuses to believe tha
having 563 PSTs open is a bad thing because they work on the ol
machine.

So, has anyone ever seen anything of this caliber? Any suggestions? Th
obvious one of "Close them" isn't an option at this time, and mergin
them down isn't either. This user claims not to have time, and keep
referring back to the old machine where her setup has worked for
years

 

[Alias]

I have a user who's been migrated to a new machine. Her old one was a
Dell GX270 with about 256MB RAM and XP SP2 and Outlook 2003. The new HP
has the same software, but has 2GB RAM and is a new dual-core job.

The user has 563 PSTs. I wish I were exagerrating. She literally has
some of these with 1 email in them. She has all of them "opened" in
outlook (By that I mean she has them loaded, but not all are expanded).
And... surprise, surprise, she's getting a lot of corruption in the
PSTs, giving her problems opening emails and personal folders
constantly.

Here's the kicker: The original machine runs them just fine. It's old
and slow, but it chugs along and doesn't seem plagued with this issue.
She has all of the files open in the same manner, and works.

Intensely frustrating, let me tell you. She refuses to believe that
having 563 PSTs open is a bad thing because they work on the old
machine.

So, has anyone ever seen anything of this caliber? Any suggestions? The
obvious one of "Close them" isn't an option at this time, and merging
them down isn't either. This user claims not to have time, and keeps
referring back to the old machine where her setup has worked for 3
years.

How, exactly, did you open the .PST files on the new computer?

Alias

 

[DL]

Assuming the data was migrated correctly then it should function as before.
Is there any Antivirus software intergrated with Outllook, or any other new
addins

Not withstanding this a pst, a not a replacement for user created folders
and as such the user should be instructed, after all how much time can it
take to work though 6 at a time. As it is a receipe for data loss, and then
the user will have considerable downtime, whilst the data is being rebuilt

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

What version of outlook is on the new machine? If 2003, do you have all the
latest patches and updates installed? I believe there was a hotfix for
profiles with more than 50 pst's in them (but I can't find the KB at the
moment).

You really need to get her to reduce the number of psts - its not a very
productive way to work. If you have an exchange server she should not be
using any psts.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/
Outlook 2007: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2007/

Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter:
(e-mail address removed)




You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I have a user who's been migrated to a new machine. Her old one was a
Dell GX270 with about 256MB RAM and XP SP2 and Outlook 2003. The new
HP has the same software, but has 2GB RAM and is a new dual-core job.

The user has 563 PSTs. I wish I were exagerrating. She literally has
some of these with 1 email in them. She has all of them "opened" in
outlook (By that I mean she has them loaded, but not all are
expanded). And... surprise, surprise, she's getting a lot of
corruption in the PSTs, giving her problems opening emails and
personal folders constantly.

Here's the kicker: The original machine runs them just fine. It's old
and slow, but it chugs along and doesn't seem plagued with this issue.
She has all of the files open in the same manner, and works.

Intensely frustrating, let me tell you. She refuses to believe that
having 563 PSTs open is a bad thing because they work on the old
machine.

So, has anyone ever seen anything of this caliber? Any suggestions?
The obvious one of "Close them" isn't an option at this time, and
merging them down isn't either. This user claims not to have time,
and keeps referring back to the old machine where her setup has
worked for 3 years.

Honestly, that's beyond insane. Is this a paying customer? If they doesn't
have Exchange, get them a hosted Exchange service. I wouldn't touch this
mess with a ten-foot pole, let alone support it.

 

[Dave Warren]

In message <[email protected]> "Lanwench [MVP -

Honestly, that's beyond insane. Is this a paying customer? If they doesn't
have Exchange, get them a hosted Exchange service. I wouldn't touch this
mess with a ten-foot pole, let alone support it.

While it certainly sounds like a mess, how would moving to Exchange
help? Most of the "I lost my PST" horror stories I've had the pleasure
to consult at have Exchange servers and most of those are configured
such that it all but forces users to still use PSTs.

Using 563 PSTs is just poor management, sure, but switching the primary
store to Exchange won't help that.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

BTW - there are stored on the local machine, not on the network or in a
roaming profile? If they are networked, it can cause corruption. Are you
using an image so the computers are 100% identical, down to the patches?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

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

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907651 - it was added to SP3 so you should
have it installed if everything is truly identical except for the hardware.



--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/
Outlook 2007: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2007/

Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter:
(e-mail address removed)




You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

What version of outlook is on the new machine? If 2003, do you have all
the latest patches and updates installed? I believe there was a hotfix for
profiles with more than 50 pst's in them (but I can't find the KB at the
moment).

You really need to get her to reduce the number of psts - its not a very
productive way to work. If you have an exchange server she should not be
using any psts.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/
Outlook 2007: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2007/

Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)

Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter:
(e-mail address removed)




You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

I have a user who's been migrated to a new machine. Her old one was a
Dell GX270 with about 256MB RAM and XP SP2 and Outlook 2003. The new HP
has the same software, but has 2GB RAM and is a new dual-core job.

The user has 563 PSTs. I wish I were exagerrating. She literally has
some of these with 1 email in them. She has all of them "opened" in
outlook (By that I mean she has them loaded, but not all are expanded).
And... surprise, surprise, she's getting a lot of corruption in the
PSTs, giving her problems opening emails and personal folders
constantly.

Here's the kicker: The original machine runs them just fine. It's old
and slow, but it chugs along and doesn't seem plagued with this issue.
She has all of the files open in the same manner, and works.

Intensely frustrating, let me tell you. She refuses to believe that
having 563 PSTs open is a bad thing because they work on the old
machine.

So, has anyone ever seen anything of this caliber? Any suggestions? The
obvious one of "Close them" isn't an option at this time, and merging
them down isn't either. This user claims not to have time, and keeps
referring back to the old machine where her setup has worked for 3
years.

 

[Robbzilla]

;296987']BTW - there are stored on the local machine, not on the networ
or in a
roaming profile? If they are networked, it can cause corruption. Ar
you
using an image so the computers are 100% identical, down to th
patches?

Yes. It's a corporate image, completely controlled and not allowin
users to make many changes. No addins running either. The files are al
locally stored on her HD and no roaming profiles are used

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In message <[email protected]> "Lanwench [MVP -

Honestly, that's beyond insane. Is this a paying customer? If they
doesn't have Exchange, get them a hosted Exchange service. I
wouldn't touch this mess with a ten-foot pole, let alone support it.

While it certainly sounds like a mess, how would moving to Exchange
help? Most of the "I lost my PST" horror stories I've had the
pleasure to consult at have Exchange servers and most of those are
configured such that it all but forces users to still use PSTs.

Using 563 PSTs is just poor management, sure, but switching the
primary store to Exchange won't help that.

It won't stop the stupid user tricks (although you can make it pretty darn
difficult for users to even create PST files). It's true that there are
seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems, as they say.

But it at least would mean that the data lived in managed storage and was
being backed up. If you've been working in places that had Exchange and
users still had PSTs, those companies either had an official policy that
said "here's your quota - what won't fit we won't support" or were just not
smart enough to have one - or they were being run by people who didn't know
how to manage Exchange properly.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

That's good to hear. The risk of corrupt would be high if they were on a
network.

How were all 563 added to the profile? Was the old profile migrated to the
new computer? If so, this could be part of the problem.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

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

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

;296987']BTW - there are stored on the local machine, not on the network
or in a
roaming profile? If they are networked, it can cause corruption. Are
you
using an image so the computers are 100% identical, down to the
patches?

Yes. It's a corporate image, completely controlled and not allowing
users to make many changes. No addins running either. The files are all
locally stored on her HD and no roaming profiles are used.

 

[Robbzilla]

;297161']That's good to hear. The risk of corrupt would be high i
they were on a
network.

How were all 563 added to the profile? Was the old profile migrated t
the
new computer? If so, this could be part of the problem.

The tech added them via a script after creating a profile. The ol
profile was not migrated. Apparantly the tech who used the script ha
to break it up into 4 scripts to handle the load...

Heh... she just got a 2nd PC(laptop) and wanted us to put those psts o
the network for sharing purposes... NOT happening if I have anything t
do with it

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

It wouldn't surprise me if the problem is related to adding them with the
scripts. I'd have made her add them one at a time herself...

So she has the potential to have 3 copies of each pst on 3 different
machines? (old, new, laptop) Ouch. I hope she is never served for Discovery.
You'd probably be the one stuck doing the searches. <g>

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

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

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

;297161']That's good to hear. The risk of corrupt would be high if
they were on a
network.

How were all 563 added to the profile? Was the old profile migrated to
the
new computer? If so, this could be part of the problem.

The tech added them via a script after creating a profile. The old
profile was not migrated. Apparantly the tech who used the script had
to break it up into 4 scripts to handle the load...

Heh... she just got a 2nd PC(laptop) and wanted us to put those psts on
the network for sharing purposes... NOT happening if I have anything to
do with it.

 

[Dave Warren]

In message <[email protected]> "Diane Poremsky

So she has the potential to have 3 copies of each pst on 3 different
machines? (old, new, laptop) Ouch. I hope she is never served for Discovery.
You'd probably be the one stuck doing the searches. <g>

Hmm...

You know, that actually brings up an interesting idea, responding to a
discovery request with one message per PST, each PST encrypted with a
unique password (passwords supplied, of course)