The set of folders where you store emails in Outlook, your contacts, your calendar all comprise your PST (personal storage) file. Supposedly Microsoft fixed the 2 gb limit on these with Office 2003. If you believe them that is. I don't because I see them broken. Yesterday I dealt with three broken PST files. They were overstuffed and stopped functioning. Most of the time Outlook users lose emails when their PST break. The three users I assisted yesterday were lucky and didn't lose any emails.
What can you do to prevent Outlook from breaking?
- archive (under File and Archive)- do this monthly. Create a new archive file each year using the year as part of the archive file name so that you can find your archived emails easily.
- delete emails- do this daily. After you have dealt with an email delete it. After you've read a joke, forward it then delete it or simply delete it. Save photos you need to your hard drive then delete them from email.
When you archive emails they become a separate file and it reduces the size of your PST. After you archive a large amount of emails, you need to compress the PST file. Go to Tools, Account Settings, Data Files and click on Personal Folders. Click on Settings and then Compact Now. This has the same effect on a PST as it does to defrag your hard drive. Warning: compressing your PST can take a very long time (same as defrag) and your Outlook will be unavailable to you until the compression is finished.
Hope this helps.
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