(Not) Getting things done with Microsoft Outlook Oversized PST files
It was a time bomb (or is that size-bomb) waiting to go off. It was time to carry out my bi-annual email archiving and backup using Microsoft Outlook when disaster struck.
Background
Currently, I use Outlook 2003 but I have been using some variant of Microsoft Outlook since Outlook 97. Every year I archive the emails I want to keep to the same archive PST file. I was happily moving emails to the archive PST, when all of a sudden outlook started complaining that it could not display items in any of the folders because the PST file had reached it’s limit.
A perfect example of where the Fail Fast design pattern should have been applied, in my opinion. Why allow the software to corrupt the data store by going over it’s limit without warning to the user? Talk about creating a rod for your own back! (See note at the end of the article).
Solution
So I cracked open my browser and searched Google, Yahoo and Ask for “Outlook+ oversized+PST+file” limit issues.
I came up with the following solution:
- Step 0: Define the problem
Found out that pre-Outlook 2003 PST files have an upper limit of 2GB. The nasty thing is that it is possible to exceed this limit and corrupt the PST file through normal usage. There is no warning that you have reached the upper limit until AFTER it has happened and you have no way of accessing any items to delete them. Bad design or what? Outlook has no built-in way to reduce a PST or OST file that has gone over the limit.
See Ref0, Ref2 and Ref3. - Step 1: Start again
Create new Outlook 2003 PST which will be the new repository of recovered emails, calendar, notes, tasks etc. This new PST file will have an upper size limit of around 20GB. See Ref1. - Step 2: Recover the oversized PST file
Recover access to items in the compromised pre-Outlook 2003 PST file by using the following software: PSTManager Using the evaluation version was enough to do the job of allowing access to the items in the oversized PST file. Follow the instructions to compact the offending PST file. I used the option of compacting my oversized PST file outside of Outlook. See Ref4a. - Step 3: Manual mundane update activity
Outlook has a wonderful ‘feature’. You can only select one folder at a time, no multiple select allowed. As I couldn’t use the move command in the oversized PST file, I had to manually copy each folder to the new Outlook 2003 PST file. Then validate that the copied folders are don’t have any missing data. - Step 4: Blast it to smitherins!
Close the oversized PST file in Outlook and close Outlook in order to remove the lock on the PST file. Then delete the oversize PST file. - Step 5: Back on track
That should do it. You should now have a Microsoft Outlook 2003 PST file that has your archived items and has a upper limit of around 20GB.
Notes
Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 1 provides better protection against Personal Folders .PST and offline folders .ost file growing past the 2GB size limit. Once a PST or OST file reaches 1.82GB, users with SP1 will not be able to add new items to prevent PST file corruption.
And this helps how? You get still get no warning about the fact that the full PST file is the issue. See Ref2.
References
Ref0:Oversized PST and OST crop tool
Ref1:How to create a .PST file in Outlook 2003
Ref2:Microsoft fix to limit PST file to 1.82GB
Ref3:OL2002: Error Message When You Copy a File to a PST That Exceeds 1.82 GB
Ref4a:PSTManager, Download evaluation copy of PSTManager 2.1.1.
Ref4b:PSTCompactor
Technorati Tags: Solution, Outlook, OversizedPST