Do you use Outlook Express or Outlook to manage your personal email or business email? If so, you need to be aware that both systems have limits as to how large the data file(s) can be. The latest version of Office Outlook 2007 gets around this by allowing for files larger than 2gb but it is still recommended that files are not allowed to exceed two gigabyte.

The technical reason is that Outlook and Outlook Express store email in an indexed format. If the file stores get too large, the indexing system fails causing your Outlook to stop working. You will not be able to send and receive email. The recovery process is different for Outlook Express and Outlook but the prognosis is not good. You will lose some data if the crash is allowed to occur. There is no warning.

A good backup system will reduce the risk but if the internal system pointers are allowed to corrupt, going to a backup that is a few days old may not be enough to recover the data.

At Centrend, we believe in preventing problems from occurring to begin with. Here’s how you can find out the size of your data file. Follow the instructions in the appropriate section for your system.

For Outlook Express Users:

Part 1: Locate the store folder.

1. Start Outlook Express
2. Click Tools, and then click Options.
3. On the Maintenance tab, click Store Folder.
4. In the Store Location dialog box, copy the store location. It’s long and you’ll probably have to scroll in the window to make sure you have the entire path to the files.

Part 2. Determine Total size of store folders

1. Click Start Run and paste in (or type in) the string from Part 1, step 4.
2. Click OK
3. Right click on each folder and choose properties in the menu that pops up. This will give you the size of each folder. The sizes added together must not be allowed to exceed 2gb

For Outlook Users:
Part 1: Locate the store folder.

1. Start Outlook
2. Right-click on Personal Folders. Click on Properties. (Make sure the Tree View is enabled you won’t be able to see “Personal Folders")
3. Click on the advanced button
4. Under Filename: you will see the path and name of your personal file folder. Copy the filename so you can refer to it in Part 2, below.

Part 2: Find out the size of your store folder

1. Click Start Run and paste in (or type in) the string from Part 1, step 4. Backspace to the “\” to erase the actual PST filename.
2. Click OK
3. Right click the PST filename you will see in the folder. Usually this file is called outlook.pst or personal.pst but the one you are using is the one identified in Part 1, step 4, above. If this file is approaching 2gb, you are dangerously close to an email crash!
4. If there is an archive.pst file in that same folder, make sure it doesn’t exceed 2gb either.

I’ve tried to make these instructions as complete as possible without being too long. If you find these instructions too difficult, or have any questions at all about how to reduce the size of the files and avoid a crash, please contact me and one of our technicians will walk you through.

Special Note for users running in an environment with Microsoft Exchange: if you are running MS Exchange on your business network, you can still run into problems if your local copy of email gets too large. If you’re MS Exchange administrator is following best practices, they have an email policy programmed on the Exchange server that will make sure you are warned well in advance of this problem.

-Paul
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Paul LaFlamme
President & CEO
Centrend, Inc.
508-347-9550 x115