.pst file too big to open

[Alva]

I have a 2.6 g .pst file which appears to be too large to open. When I use
either Outlook 2000, 2003, or 2007 it comes up and says the file is too large
and give me instructions to make it smaller. Given that I can't get it to
open, how am I supposed to delete some e-mail to make it smaller?

 

[DL]

Its only too large if it was created in an Outlook version prior to Outlook
2003, or it was created in the old format in the later version of Outlook.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=296088

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I have a 2.6 g .pst file which appears to be too large to open. When I use
either Outlook 2000, 2003, or 2007 it comes up and says the file is too
large
and give me instructions to make it smaller. Given that I can't get it to
open, how am I supposed to delete some e-mail to make it smaller?

Forget Outlook 2002. Those versions will never be able to open that file, nor
could any of them ever have been able to create a PST of that size. It's
about 700MB larger than any pre-2002 Outlook could create. It must have been
created by either Outlook 2003 or 2007.

It's puzzling that Outlook 2003 or 2007 is complaining about size, because
those versions will handle 20GB PSTs by default. This indicates to me that
something may have happened to it between the last time you opened it and now.
Have you tried using the Inbox Repair Tool (SCANPST.EXE) on it?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Forget Outlook 2002. Those versions will never be able to open that file,
nor could any of them ever have been able to create a PST of that size.
It's about 700MB larger than any pre-2002 Outlook could create. It must
have been created by either Outlook 2003 or 2007.

I meant "Outlook 2002 or earlier."

 

[Alva]

In this case, we have tried upgrading to a newer version of Outlook which I
believe will handle larger .pst files. I am getting the same answer from
Outlook 2003 that I did outlook 2000.

 

[Alva]

I did try the inbox repair tool on it. Once it was done, still got the same
answer. I find it also a little peculiar that the file appears to be 1.99
but when I do anything with outlook on it it is more like 2.6 g. Starting to
wonder if there is something else at work here.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I did try the inbox repair tool on it. Once it was done, still got the same
answer. I find it also a little peculiar that the file appears to be 1.99
but when I do anything with outlook on it it is more like 2.6 g. Starting
to
wonder if there is something else at work here.

Ah. Then it is an Outlook 2002 or earlier PST that was allowed to grow too
large and you'll have to truncate it to recover anything from it.
http://www.slipstick.com/problems/repair2gbpst.asp

 

[Chris_Tribble]

I have just hit a similar problem. Is it possible that we've all just
transferred to Windows 7? I think this is what's hitting me. Could it be
more of a permissions problem?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I have just hit a similar problem. Is it possible that we've all just
transferred to Windows 7? I think this is what's hitting me. Could it be
more of a permissions problem?

"Similar" isn't "same". You should start your own thread and describe your
problem, including full error messages, Outlook version, and account type.

 

[TCORN]

I have a 2.6 g .pst file which appears to be too large to open. When I use
either Outlook 2000, 2003, or 2007 it comes up and says the file is too large
and give me instructions to make it smaller. Given that I can't get it to
open, how am I supposed to delete some e-mail to make it smaller?

Since the .pst file was created in an older version of outlook 2002 and
earlier and you just updated to a later version 2003 and above, outlook still
sees that file as a 2002 or earlier .pst. This worked for me, export your
mail, it will create a new .pst in the 2003 or 2007 version. Delete old .pst
and import new one. Now you will have the 20 gig capacity.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Since the .pst file was created in an older version of outlook 2002 and
earlier and you just updated to a later version 2003 and above, outlook
still
sees that file as a 2002 or earlier .pst. This worked for me, export your
mail, it will create a new .pst in the 2003 or 2007 version. Delete old .pst
and import new one. Now you will have the 20 gig capacity.

This seems erroneous to me. Since the PST was described as being 2.6 GB and
since Outlook 2002 and earlier could never have created a PST this large, it
cannot be an old format ANSI PST. Outlook 2000 will not be able to open it,
but Outlook 2003 and later should.