Outlook - cannot find .pst file

[robbied69]

Hi,

I am having a problem with accessing my pst file when I am using my laptop away from the network.

Currently, the pst file has been relocated to a folder in My Documents, which in turn is being saved to directly to a network share for backup purposes. This works fine when my machine is attached to the network. However, when I take it off I get an error message saying: "The file \\$share\users work\a user\my documents\outlook\personal folders.pst could not be found" and Outlook will not open.

Is there anyway to resolve this without having to move to the local machine.

Thanks for any help.

 

[ArizonaGeek]

Acorrding to Microsoft, the answer is no.

Although there are always ways around Microsoft's quirks and features but the quick answer is no, you'd have to move it locally.

I have seen third party software that would allow it to be available as an off line file but I have never used anything like it.

Cheers
Rob

 

[robbied69]

Thanks

We are thinking of purchasing Exchange Server soon, will this remedy the problem?

 

[ArizonaGeek]

No, Exchange really has no baring on where your PST folders are stored. The only thing with having your own Exchange server is that you can set how big your email inbox can be so instead of archiving your email you can leave them sit on the server. The bad to that is, if you have a huge email inbox it might take a while to download if you use webmail or more than one computer.

If you are worried about those PST's being backed up you could always use something like Backup Exec from Symantec ... they offer a desktop/laptop option (they call it DLO) it will back up PST anytime something is added to an archive and really works well. Real time back up with no problems.

Cheers
Rob