pst size, permission, folder size, archives - Outlook 2007

[liam]

Hi

I upgraded to 2007 from 2003 without a problem.

After about a month and previously reading the total size was 19GB's, I then
began receiving the warning that the pst size was too big (4GB's) and/or the
hard drive was full (no where near 30% full) and told to remove emails etc to
reduce this number. Trying to delete (under an admin account) it then said I
didn't have permission.

1 - Why did I get this message when I was not even close to the 19GB max size?

2 - How do I ensure I have permission or what do I need to do if an admin
account isn't allowed to remove emails etc - for future reference.

3 - The max number of items in a folder is 65K++ I read. Does this mean that
any folder within the inbox (and therefore a subfolder of the inbox) counts
towards this value and to ensure this doesn't happen, I must create all
folders as individual ones and not as subfolders of the inbox or outbox?

4 - Just to clarify, an Archive is independant of any pst file - yes? And so
does not contribute to any pst file size - yes?

Thanks for your help in anticipation.

I managed to remove sufficient mail etc very slowly until I could create
archives but the pst file is still showing at 4GB's.

I expect to have this problem again and rather than have multiple archives I
would like to be able to manage my pst by size, permissions and folder
construction - as my queries above outline.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

I upgraded to 2007 from 2003 without a problem.

After about a month and previously reading the total size was 19GB's,
I then began receiving the warning that the pst size was too big
(4GB's) and/or the hard drive was full (no where near 30% full) and
told to remove emails etc to reduce this number. Trying to delete
(under an admin account) it then said I didn't have permission.

1 - Why did I get this message when I was not even close to the 19GB
max size?

There are two types of PST files, unicode and non-unicode. Unicode PSTs
were added in Outlook 2003 and have the higher limit. Non-Unicode PSTs are
still available for creation in Outlook 2007 and are limited to 4GB and are
there for backwards compatibility. My initial thought is that this PST is
non-unicode. Easy enough to check, pull up the properties of it, click
advanced and see what it says for Format.

2 - How do I ensure I have permission or what do I need to do if an
admin account isn't allowed to remove emails etc - for future
reference.

Is this an Exchange environment, or just a POP/IMAP account.

3 - The max number of items in a folder is 65K++ I read. Does this
mean that any folder within the inbox (and therefore a subfolder of
the inbox) counts towards this value and to ensure this doesn't
happen, I must create all folders as individual ones and not as
subfolders of the inbox or outbox?

Just the folder itself, not recursive. So, a folder with 3 subfolders
would be (65k * 4) - 3 items before being full.

4 - Just to clarify, an Archive is independant of any pst file - yes?
And so does not contribute to any pst file size - yes?

Errr... no. An archive *is* a PST file. So it is still limited in size,
but it is a different pst file, so messages in your primary PST file won't
affect the size limit of the archive pst (unless you set your archive pst to
be your primary pst... which I'm not even sure is possible).

 

[liam]

Hi FH

1 - I've right clicked the "personal folder" within outlook and selected
properties and advanced - this shows the file type format as a "personal
folders file". I'm not sure what the options are here but I've tried to view
the properties direct on the pst (no help), through control panel/mail then
data files and also "data file management" (again no help I can see). These
last two do not give the option of advanced so I'm hoping selecting the
personal folder properties is correct.

It is possible that initially the pst file migrated from office 2000 to 2003
and now 2007. Does the file format suggest that this is as you think - 4GB
limit?

Can I create the new version pst and then move all my current items into it
even if they are from an older version to achieve the higher 19GB limit? If I
can, can I then delete the old format personal folder from the tree and have
the new one in it's place - as the top 'default' personal folder? Or simply
retain the current pst but have it move position down the tree for example -
where the archives show?

2 - no, I'm not on exchange. Just multiple pop accts

3 - thanks, I wondered whether having multiple sub-folders added to the
allowed max of the main folder. Currently my inbox (& mirrored outbox) has in
excess of 30 main subfolders which are then subfoldered again, sometimes with
another subfolder. Total subfolders must reach 60+. With so many I'm happier
knowing none come anywhere close to the max no. of items allowed.

4 - thanks again, I was just making sure that although I've archived over
3GB's, I just wanted to clarify that this file, although a pst file, is not
linked to the working pst file and in that way, maintaining the size of the
working file at 4GB's. Your answer helps me understand that my working pst is
independant of any other pst.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

It is possible that initially the pst file migrated from office 2000 to
2003
and now 2007. Does the file format suggest that this is as you think - 4GB
limit?

Nope, that's a unicode pst (actually, the fact that non-unicode are limited
to 2gb, not 4gb, should have been a hint for me, but my memory is sloppy).
So, now I'm curious about the warning you got. What exactly gave you the
warning? The default warning for Outlook isn't 4gb, it's 1.8gb, and that's
for the non-unicode pst. What are the registry entries referenced in
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832925 set to on your machine?

2 - no, I'm not on exchange. Just multiple pop accts

Well, it would depend upon what error you're actually getting.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Nope, that's a unicode pst (actually, the fact that non-unicode are
limited to 2gb, not 4gb, should have been a hint for me, but my
memory is sloppy). So, now I'm curious about the warning you got. What
exactly gave you the warning? The default warning for Outlook
isn't 4gb, it's 1.8gb, and that's for the non-unicode pst. What are
the registry entries referenced in
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832925 set to on your machine?

I wonder. Is the disk where the PST resides formatted as NTFS or FAT32? If
the latter, no file can exceed 4GB in size.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

I wonder. Is the disk where the PST resides formatted as NTFS or
FAT32? If the latter, no file can exceed 4GB in size.

Ooooo. Good point. I'd be impressed if Outlook was smart enough to
recognize that, but I've been surprised before.

 

[liam]

Hi Guys

I think we're making progress.

1 - the file resides on a FAT32 formatted drive (not 'C' drive). I'll try to
create/split a drive and format it as NTFS purely for the pst files.

2 - I found the link you've given before I posted here, but I can't see/find
any of this in the registry.

I get as far as:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft (no subfolder for Outlook or
PST)
&
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook (no subfolder for
PST)

So we have a FAT32 size limit and no reg keys to determine the limit.

I can have a go at trying to create the subfolder and keys as the link page
suggests but do you know if I need to create the missing items in BOTH
registry strings?

Or perhaps just creating a new NTFS partition would be easier and safer and
solve the problem.

What do you think/suggest?

3 - Regarding the warning, a pop-up showed when opening Outlook and stated
that either the pst file size had reached it's limit and I should consider
emptying the deleted folder and other folders or that the drive that the file
resides on is full and I should create more space by removing or moving files
to another drive.

As stated before, the file was locked up and would not allow me to delete
anything and that (as an admin acct) I didn't have permission.

I had to keep opening/closing Outlook and deleting mail one at a time until
I could get two at a time and so on until I could get the archiver to work.

However after considerably reducing the size of mail kept within the working
pst file and expecting therefore to see a reduced pst file size, the file
size remains at 4GB which I take to mean that it's keeping 4GB of space
available (similar to a pagefile). Otherwise why would it not reduce?

Thanks for the help up to now, very much appreciated. I'd also forgotten
about the FAT32 limit. Future hard drives to be all NTFS.