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As the pile of mail you keep in Outlook grows, so, typically, does the time it takes Outlook to do
what you want it to. At the horizon, maybe the not so distant horizon, the PST file size limit
looms. (The PST or "Personal Folders" file, of course, is where Outlook keeps all your data,
including calendars, contacts and emails.)

Either way, it pays to keep the size of your main PST file small and manageable. You can have
Outlook do some of that using Autoarchive. Or you divide your messages between more PST
files, which can be painless and swift.

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ë Outlook 2003ë2007 Personal Folder File (PST)
This is used by Outlook 2003/2007
ë Size limit
Configurable; 20 GB by default
For performance and stability it is not recommended to increase the limit beyond 20 GB
ë For us, size limit is 4GB

 
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With Outlook Program opened, select File/ Data file Management«
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Click on your default PST file. Then click on Open Folder

Right click on your default PST (OST) file, then click on Properties
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Df your PST (OST) file is bigger than 4GB you have to do the Procedure below
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a) Select File / Data File Management from the menu in Outlook. Click Add....

b) Choose the desired format. Unless you may need to access the data with Outlook 2002
or earlier directly, it is safe to highlight Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst).Click OK
c) create a New folder named ³©

 ´ in ³ 
´ Folder
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d) Enter the desired file name
D like yearly archives, and naming the PST file after the year makes sense. Of course, you
can choose monthly archives if you do have lots of big mail to deal with, or another scheme.
Just make sure the resulting PST files' sizes are somewhere around 1ë2 GB. Larger files
tend to be less efficient

d) Click OK
e) Type the archive PST file's desired name under Name
Again, it makes sense to name your archive after its contents (a month's worth of mail in my
case)
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f) Optionally, protect access with a password
g) Click OK and then Close

 


a) To populate your newly created archive PST
a.1) Drag and drop entire folders to the root folder newly appearing under Mail Folders
This is handy if you already have an "Archive" folder that contains, say, all of last year's
mail. Just drop it unto the archive PST
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b) Alternatively, to archive individual items
b.1) Click on the root folder named after your archive PST under Mail Folders with the right
mouse button
b.2) Select New Folder... from the menu

b.3) Type the desired folder name

Make sure Mail and Post Dtems is selected under a
 
6 if you want to archive
emails. For archiving other items, choose the appropriate category
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b.4) Click OK
b.5) Drag and drop individual or groups of emails onto the newly created folder

c) To move all mail preceding a certain date in a folder (or nested folders)
c.1) Select File/ Archive... from the menu in Outlook
Make sure Archive this folder and all subfolders is selected
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c.2) Highlight the desired folder
c.3) Specify the date emails prior to which (Friday, August 1, 2008) you want to move under
³Archive items older than6´

c.4) Use the Browse... button to select the archive PST file created above. Then click OK
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d) Optionally, compact your live PST file to claim newly freed space right away
To manually start reclaiming wasted space in an Outlook PST file
d.1) Select File/ Data File Management... from the menu in Outlook
d.2) Highlight the desired PST file
d.3) Click Settings....
d.4) Now click Compact Now

 
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After you have archived all items, you can close the PST file in Outlook
a) Click on the root folder of your archive PST under Mail Folders with the right mouse
button
b) Select Close "July 2008" from the menu
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To retrieve messages from an archive PST file you have closed
a) Select File/ Open/ Outlook Data File... from the menu in Outlook

b) Highlight the desired archive PST file

c) Click OK
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The PST file and its folders will appear under Mail Folders, ready for action