.PST File Too Huge, Why?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Davey
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Davey

I'm using OL2002 (Office XP). My Outlook.pst file is 218
megs, which seems to be huge. I've deleted most of the
emails that might have contained attachments, I have
about 3-400 contacts, but no photos, only text.

I need to get this file much smaller to xfer between
computers, but can't figure out why it's so big or where
to look to figure it out. Are there any hidden files that
might be contributing to this problem? What can I do or
look for?

Please email reply as well as post, if possible,I don't
always have access to newsgroups. Thank you in advance.
(e-mail address removed)
 
You need to compact the pst-file as well. When you delete a messaeg it will
basically end up as a "gap" in your file and therefore the pst-file doesn't
shrink.

To compact the pst-file;
Rightclick the root folder (most likely Outlook Today)-> Properties-> button
Advanced...-> button Compact Now

--
Roady
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Davey,

Roady is correct in needing to compact the file in order to get rid of the
"white space" left from deleting the items.

If that still doesn't get the PST file size down to an acceptable limit to
transport between machines, I would suggest exporting the individual
folders out to their own PST files. Once you have the PSTs created,
copy\move them to the other machine and then import the data back. You can
use this article for a reference:

287070.KB.EN-US OL2002: How to Back Up, Restore, or Move Outlook Data
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;287070


Take care,


James Hawkins

Microsoft
 
Actually a deleted item (permanently deleted and not just sitting in the
Deleted Items folder which is really just a holding store for e-mails
that you don't want in another folder) only gets its status changed to
deleted. Delete-marked items are not physically removed from the PST
file. Only the access to them is denied. They are still there but you
can't see them. Compacting your PST file will purge the delete-marked
items (e-mails, calender events, journal entries, notes) along with some
other compression of whitespace.

Right-click on the root node of your information store (the "Outlook
Today" node in the tree view in the Folders List pane or in the Outlook
Bar). Select Properties and click Advanced in the General tab. Click
the Compact Now to compact your PST file.

Supposedly compaction is to occur as a background process to
periodically reduce the size of your file. If you do the manual Compact
Now but the PST file doesn't reduce in size then it was already
compacted. The automated compaction only occurs if Outlook is loaded
and if it has been left idle for awhile (Microsoft won't divulge how
long is this idle interval). If you load Outlook, retrieve and read
your e-mails, reply to e-mails or send new e-mail, and then close
Outlook then it will never be idle long enough to perform the background
compaction.

For pre-OL2003, the max size for a .pst file is 2 GB (actually its 1.87
GB). I think the max size for OL2003 is larger. So 218 MB isn't that
big but it may be bigger than you want when transferring the .pst file
to another computer. I've seen 300 MB files shrink to 20 MB after
compaction. I've seen them lose only a few megabytes or almost nothing
because either the .pst file had already been compacted or there were
very few delete-marked items in the file.
 
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