pst file too big..will not archive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Art Nittskoff
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A

Art Nittskoff

I am a new user and imported everything from Outlook Express.

I have lots of persoanl folders and LOTS of old emails. My PST folder is
almost 9 megs.

I compacted all the folders and I tried to archive them telling it to
archive everything over 3 months old. (I have emails that are 5 years old in
the folders)

It looked like it archived. It created all the archive folders, but they are
all empty. What am i doing wrong?

Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays!

Art
 
Art Nittskoff said:
I am a new user and imported everything from Outlook Express.

I have lots of persoanl folders and LOTS of old emails. My PST folder is
almost 9 megs.
Click to expand...

Are you sure you mean 9MB? That's MINUTE.
I compacted all the folders and I tried to archive them telling it to
archive everything over 3 months old. (I have emails that are 5 years old
in
the folders)

It looked like it archived. It created all the archive folders, but they
are
all empty. What am i doing wrong?

Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays!
Click to expand...

See my sig.
 
Your mistake was Importing (Outlook >Import > Outlook Express) as all mail
will have been set to the Import date, thus nothing is older than the import
date.

How you proceed depends; Personally I would use the mail applet, or data
management to create a new data file and set that as the default mail store,
then close the origonal data file (the one that contains your imported mail)
Then in Outlook Express export your msgs to Outlook. You can then archive,
though you might consider as to whether you want to create several archives
based on different date criteria
Oh and you dont mention your version of Outllook, which often helps if you
have an outlook question.
 
Gordon,

I think I meant 9 GIGS not megs.

The actual number is 8,844,090

Thanks

Art
 
DL,

Thanks for the reply.

I am not quite sure I understand what I should do.

First of all, I am using Outlook 2007

I have not really started using it full time, so I can easily wipe out the
contacts and all the mail folders and start over.

I have dozens of mail folders that are located in the Personal Folders
section.

I have about 3,000 contacts (maybe that is what makes the PST file so big)

In these mail folders, I have stored emails going back years. I checked the
folders and they have all the emails in them WITH the correct dates (In other
words, not the date of the file import)

I looked at the file import process and it does not look like there was a
choice to import them another way.

Like I said, I can delete everything and start over...so please tell me what
to do.

ALSO NOTE,
When I scroll down under the mail folders, I do see an ARCHIVE folder and
another list of all the same folders...but there is nothing in any of them.

Would it be easy to just manually drop and drag all the old items from the
current folder to the archived one?

Art


--
Thanks Very Much!

Art Nittskoff


DL said:
Your mistake was Importing (Outlook >Import > Outlook Express) as all mail
will have been set to the Import date, thus nothing is older than the import
date.

How you proceed depends; Personally I would use the mail applet, or data
management to create a new data file and set that as the default mail store,
then close the origonal data file (the one that contains your imported mail)
Then in Outlook Express export your msgs to Outlook. You can then archive,
though you might consider as to whether you want to create several archives
based on different date criteria
Oh and you dont mention your version of Outllook, which often helps if you
have an outlook question.
Click to expand...
 
Outlook archive works on the modifies date, by importing mail all modified
dates have been set to the Import date.
If on the other hand in Outlook Express you Export msgs the modified date
are not changed, therefore archive will function
Outllook 2007 can deal with a data file of 20gb +

Clear/perminently delete you mail within Outlook, close Outlook, in Express
Export your msgs
(dont touch your Outlook Contacts)

Art Nittskoff said:
DL,

Thanks for the reply.

I am not quite sure I understand what I should do.

First of all, I am using Outlook 2007

I have not really started using it full time, so I can easily wipe out the
contacts and all the mail folders and start over.

I have dozens of mail folders that are located in the Personal Folders
section.

I have about 3,000 contacts (maybe that is what makes the PST file so big)

In these mail folders, I have stored emails going back years. I checked
the
folders and they have all the emails in them WITH the correct dates (In
other
words, not the date of the file import)

I looked at the file import process and it does not look like there was a
choice to import them another way.

Like I said, I can delete everything and start over...so please tell me
what
to do.

ALSO NOTE,
When I scroll down under the mail folders, I do see an ARCHIVE folder and
another list of all the same folders...but there is nothing in any of
them.

Would it be easy to just manually drop and drag all the old items from the
current folder to the archived one?

Art
Click to expand...
 
I personally rarely use the archive process - it's too slow, and on my
computer, bogs me down. Also, there are some mail files that have no date on
them - i.e., they may have come in as attachments, like a forwarded message,
etc.

For that reason, my preferred method of attack is to use the backup feature
and manually back up selected folders, or just drag and drop (cut and paste)
the letters into the folders already created in the archive file that you
made (the one with the empty folders).

Please note: All pst files that I have, no matter how they were created,
can cause problems being opened, depending on computer and Outlook version,
if they are too big. This is another good reason to do the backup manually.
I normally do my backups/archives for a year, or a part of a year, and name
the file accordingly. I try to keep the file at 2 gigs or less so that there
are no problems with recovery later.

Another issue with file size is the type of backup that you use. For
instance, if you use CD's for backup, you'll want your pst files to be much
smaller so you can fit an entire file on one CD.

Start with the oldest mail items in each folder, and see how big your backup
is when you are finished. If it's small, you might want to incrementally add
more mail items by date.

Art Nittskoff said:
DL,

Thanks for the reply.

I am not quite sure I understand what I should do.

First of all, I am using Outlook 2007

I have not really started using it full time, so I can easily wipe out the
contacts and all the mail folders and start over.

I have dozens of mail folders that are located in the Personal Folders
section.

I have about 3,000 contacts (maybe that is what makes the PST file so big)

In these mail folders, I have stored emails going back years. I checked the
folders and they have all the emails in them WITH the correct dates (In other
words, not the date of the file import)

I looked at the file import process and it does not look like there was a
choice to import them another way.

Like I said, I can delete everything and start over...so please tell me what
to do.

ALSO NOTE,
When I scroll down under the mail folders, I do see an ARCHIVE folder and
another list of all the same folders...but there is nothing in any of them.

Would it be easy to just manually drop and drag all the old items from the
current folder to the archived one?

Art
Click to expand...
 
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