Restoring > 4GB Outlook PST

[isaacgrover]

Good afternoon from Wisconsin,

I have a user that uses Outlook 2003 to access his POP3 account and over time his PST file has grown to just a hair over 4GB. Now when he starts up Outlook, he receives an error "Errors have been detected in the file <file_path>. Quit all mail-enabled applications, and then use the Inbox Repair Tool." Using the inbox repair tool doesn't work and cropping the PST before using the inbox repair tool still doesn't work. Are there any chances of recovering his older mail?

Thanks in advance,


--
Isaac Grover, Owner
Quality Computer Services of River Falls, Wisconsin
Web:

http://www.qcs-rf.com

 

[smah]

What file system is used on the drive where the .pst file is stored? Is it FAT32 by any chance?

 

[isaacgrover]

Honestly I don't know. It should be NTFS as I can set up user and group permissions on the folders, and this machine is a client on an Active Directory domain. Regardless, I copied his PST over to a standalone PC running Windows XP Professional with NTFS, set up an Outlook 2003 profile, used his PST as the data file, and still the same error on my test machine.


--
Isaac Grover, Owner
Quality Computer Services of River Falls, Wisconsin
Web:

http://www.qcs-rf.com

 

[smah]

The reason that I asked is because there's a 4GB file size limitation on FAT32.

Anyway, will it open if you use the pst crop tool crop a copy of the file down to something like 1GB?

 

[linsysadmin]

How about scanpst.exe? Should find out what's wrong with it and fix the thing. Man, what do you do with a 4GB PST file... I've heard there's no worse way of archiving e-mails but HOW ELSE? Current mailbox on exchange server? (ha ha ha ha ha - yeah RIGHT - 4 hour send/receive sync time...)

 

[robmazco]

I yell at anyone here at work if there PST's even come close to 2gig. No PST imo should be that size, it just causes problems.
My guess is they are hosed, Ive seen it before.
But if your lucky, SCAN.PST can recover something.

 

[linsysadmin]

So? We're on tenterhooks here, Isaac. We are missing the climax of that 4GB .pst story. Will the hero prevail?

 

[smah]

While I agree that a .pst file that size is excessive, 2007 & 2003 should be able to handle it. The 2GB limit was for pre-2003 versions.

 

[robmazco]

Aye Smah, Outlok 03 and 07 is touted to handle them but in 03, Ive seen troubles, often enough to prompt my scolding of the over 2-giggers. Not sure of 07 yet, havent seen enough.

But alas we still dont know how this has turned out for the OP.

 

[hubieb]

Newbie question on this topic...my PST file is 2.8 gb, getting VERY slow. What can I do to "trim" the size, while still keeping the emails around for referencing? I will need to access them via search as well.

 

[smah]

Archive them to a different .pst file. Then close that pst file and only open it when you need something from it. I'd suggest archiving by year for simplicity. ie: 2007-mail.pst, 2006-mail.pst, etc.