Most people keep their Outlook e-mail in an Outlook Data File. This is a file with the extension of .pst

On all modern versions of Outlook this contains your entire Outlook structure including Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, Calendar and Contacts.

Now if you do not have any data management strategies in place for your e-mail eventually you will run into problems. The .pst can become unstable when reaching 2gb in size. Particularly on older versions of Outlook

If you are not careful it can become a data recovery job to fix an oversized .pst file.

Below is the strategy I use to both Backup and Manage my Outlook .pst

I keep a separate .pst per year. so I have a 2005.pst, 2006.pst and 2007.pst etc. At the beginning of every year I create a new one with the name of the year as its title.

In a year I gets lots of e-mail but never 2gb worth, 2gb would be about 15-20 thousand e-mails. I get about 60% of that, so a 1.3gb file would be about right for me but dependant on what’s in my e-mail that year of course.

Backing up.

Here is how to locate your current .pst File

Go into Start > Settings > Control Panel > Mail

You should see something like this.

Click on Data Files

You may have more that one entry on your list, but the one with the comment “Mail Delivery Location” is the one your current e-mail is delivered to.

Highlight the line which has “Mail Delivery Location” against it and press Open Folder.

This will open up Windows Explorer and automatically highlight the current data file .pst

Click on View Details to easily find the size of this file. If its approaching 2gb in size then you need to start considering purging old items or putting in place a strategy like mine where you have a new .pst for every year.

So the the file you see highlighted is the file you want to make sure gets backed up.

How to create a new blank .pst

On the screen shot above you can see an Add button, on your version click add and it will ask you what type of Outlook file to choose. Choose the one most compatible with your current version of Outlook and a give it a name. Choose something meaningful you will remember.

Then in outlook you can change which .pst is the default mail delivery location by going into

Tools > Email Accounts > View or Change Existing Email Accounts >

Then selecting from the drop down (shown above) pick the personal folder to use. Unless you specifically name your Personal Folder you will see something like

Personal Folders
Personal Folders

In the scenario above it would be the 2nd one, the new one.

You then need to close outlook and reopen it and from then on all your e-mail will go to the new .pst

You would want to follow this procedure particularly if your current .pst has become unstable and wont receive any new e-mail.

If you have reached this post because you having outlook .pst problems here are some support links to help you.

Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287497/

Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272227

or

Link: http://www.slipstick.com/problems/scanpst.asp

If you have any Outlook Management Tips, please share then in the comments.