Outlook 2000 archiving questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roy N.
  • Start date Start date
R

Roy N.

Any help with the following questions is greatly appreciated. All questions
pertain to OL2000.

1) Does making a backup copy of my .pst file automatically include all
emails, contacts, calender items, etc?

2) When duplicating .pst files, ss folder structure maintained for both
emails and contatcs in the duplicated .pst? If not, how can I copy file
structure so that if I have a crash I can restore Outlook so that it is
exactly as I originally had it?

3) If using the OL2000 archive option, how do you recover the archived items
when you want to access them? Everything I have read tell you how to turn
the archive option on, but doesn't tell you how to access archived data.

3.5) When accessing archived data, how is it kept seperate (from a GUI
standpoint) from the current un-archived items? For instance, if you need to
look at archived items in the 'sent' folder, are they thrown in with files
in your active sent folder?

4) An article I read in the MS knowledge base suggests that one backs up OL
rules by using the rules wizard's Export option. Can't you just copy the
..rwz file isntead?

I have read everything at slipstick.com and haven't found these answers, so
please do not direct me to that site (seems to be a reflex reaction around
here - for good reason, it's a great resource).

Thanks.
 
Answers inline below. I apologize in advance, though -- I'm going to
send you back to Slipstick once or twice, because I think you may have
missed a few things :-)

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Replies sent to my e-mail address will probably not be answered --
please reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***


Roy N. said:
Any help with the following questions is greatly appreciated. All questions
pertain to OL2000.

1) Does making a backup copy of my .pst file automatically include all
emails, contacts, calender items, etc?
Click to expand...

Yes. The Slipstick article http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
should answer just about any question you have regarding data backup.
Note that the first line in the "Personal Folders Files" section of the
article states that all your data is stored in a .PST file if you're not
using Exchange. :-)
2) When duplicating .pst files, ss folder structure maintained for both
emails and contatcs in the duplicated .pst? If not, how can I copy file
structure so that if I have a crash I can restore Outlook so that it is
exactly as I originally had it?
Click to expand...

If you mean the folder tree structure, yes, as long as you reuse the
original .PST rather than importing from it into another .PST.
(Importing might work, but it doesn't always work as expected.)
Re-using the .PST will also preserve your custom folder views, if you've
created any.
3) If using the OL2000 archive option, how do you recover the archived items
when you want to access them? Everything I have read tell you how to turn
the archive option on, but doesn't tell you how to access archived
Click to expand...
data.

Slipstick again :-) http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/readarchive.htm
(Note that the instructions in this article apply to any stored .PST
file you may want to look at, not just an archive or even one that's
been used for AutoArchive.)
3.5) When accessing archived data, how is it kept seperate (from a GUI
standpoint) from the current un-archived items? For instance, if you need to
look at archived items in the 'sent' folder, are they thrown in with files
in your active sent folder?
Click to expand...

The above-mentioned article doesn't state it very clearly, but your
archive .PST will open as a separate set of folders in your Folder List.
If the archive.pst has a Sent Items folder, it will be a different Sent
Items folder than your default Sent Items folder. The data doesn't
intermix at all.
4) An article I read in the MS knowledge base suggests that one backs up OL
rules by using the rules wizard's Export option. Can't you just copy the
.rwz file isntead?
Click to expand...

I don't see why not...but I'd try both, it can't hurt to have two copies
:-)
 
Jocelyn Fiorello said:
Yes. The Slipstick article http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
should answer just about any question you have regarding data backup.
Note that the first line in the "Personal Folders Files" section of the
article states that all your data is stored in a .PST file if you're not
using Exchange. :-)
Click to expand...

"All data" is subjective. For instance rules and nicknames are not stored in
the .pst file. I was just trying to see if anyone else could come up with
other things that I have to manually back up independent from the .pst file.
If you mean the folder tree structure, yes, as long as you reuse the
original .PST rather than importing from it into another .PST.
(Importing might work, but it doesn't always work as expected.)
Re-using the .PST will also preserve your custom folder views, if you've
created any.
Click to expand...

Will the folder tree structure for the contacts also be preseved? I read
somewhere that when recovering an old PST file the contacts subfolders are
lost and everything gets dumped into the main contacts folder. If this is
true, are there any workarounds to preserve the contacts file structure?
 
The above-mentioned article doesn't state it very clearly, but your
archive .PST will open as a separate set of folders in your Folder List.
If the archive.pst has a Sent Items folder, it will be a different Sent
Items folder than your default Sent Items folder. The data doesn't
intermix at all.
Click to expand...

What is the benefit of archiving data to begin with?
 
If you re-use the .PST -- either by pointing Outlook to it as the
default mail store or by opening it in Outlook via File | Open |
Personal Folders File -- the folder tree structure should appear EXACTLY
as it did every other time you used that .PST. If it doesn't, the file
has become corrupted in some way, and you'd need to try to repair it.
But re-using the .PST is the most reliable way to avoid such problems,
as opposed to importing from a .PST, which would dump everything into
one location.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Replies sent to my e-mail address will probably not be answered --
please reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***
 
There are two benefits to archiving data:

1) Get old stuff you don't need to look at again anytime soon (but
still may want to keep) out of your default folders so you don't need to
wade through them to find more current stuff

2) Keep the size of your .PST file to a manageable level. The absolute
maximum file size of a .PST file in Outlook 2002 and earlier is 2GB, and
once you reach that level, your .PST is essentially unusable. You'd
need to download a MS tool that will slice some of the data out of the
middle of the file (permanently) in hopes that you could then open the
file and salvage the rest of the data. Most people start having
problems with the .PST file after it hits the 1GB mark. So, regularly
purging your .PST is a very good idea, and with archive files, you can
not only organize your old data however you want it, but you can always
open the archives later if you need access to their contents.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Replies sent to my e-mail address will probably not be answered --
please reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***
 
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