Mail system seems very unorganised 3

[1nterpol]

We have an exchange 2003 server and everyone is using outlook 2003

some of the users who receive a lot of mail have been coming to me recently asking for me to help find mail for them

ive noticed that these users under mail folders on the left have about 4-5 different folders

eg:

mailbox- jim bob
archive folders
archive folders
archive folders 1
personal folders

really the way i would like it to be is for them to have their mailbox which has a limit and all other mail is stored in an archive or personal folders part

but i think there is a limit on these files of about 2gb?

Has anyone had this problem before, they are not too fond of deleting old mail here as you can probably see!

The archived files are all stored locally, so having them stored on the network so they can be backed up is something i want to look at as well

 

[Zelandakh]

Eeek.
PST files on a network drive. Bad. Don't...
PST files. Bad. Avoid if possible.
PST files on a local drive - are they being backed up? What happens if they corrupt or get deleted?
Personal folders? If you are using Exchange, personal folders should be banned.
Archive folders? I hate them. See above - same plan, different name.
Move everything into their mailboxes.

 

[1nterpol]

move everything into there mailbox so that its stored on the exchange server?

theres 37gb free on the mail server, do you suggest that i expand that so that no one has to archive etc? and so that the mail quota can be enlarged

thanks for the reply!

 

[Zelandakh]

Do you have a larger partition? If so, move the store/s over to there first then move all email in.

Servers are built for storage. Local computers are not.

 

[xmsre]

If the mail has business value, then keep it in managed storage on the exchange server. If the mail has no business value, don't keep it anywhere.

 

[ntinlin]

I agree with my learned compatriots on all their comments.

But in answer to one of your questions the 2Gb limit was for pre-Unicode / Outlook 2003 PST's. Although you'd usually hit a wall at 1.8Gb.


MS recommended limit for the new style PST's is 20Gb but storing that amount of data in a PST would not be the best idea in the world.

Neill

 

[1nterpol]

Thanks lads,

Ill try and persuade the boss to go with your suggestions.