[davemendoza]

I have no idea why but my PST files went from a secure 1.5G size to nearly 3G.

I look over and over and nothing appears doubled up.

I can only guess some how when I was reformatting my files after cleaning up a virus, I accidently double clicked something. But again, nothing at all appears doubled up.

In any case, the impt thing now is to figure out how to shrink this [bleep] thing without losing efficiency.

My entire business is in Outlook so stability is everything to me.

I tried archiving already so no need to visit that issue.

Thanks!

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go into outlook. not sure what version you have, but if you can view the settings of your pst file, just click on compact now. that should take care of it.

[starjax]

go into outlook. not sure what version you have, but if you can view the settings of your pst file, just click on compact now. that should take care of it.

[davemendoza]

Thanks I have tried that. It is not enough. First thing I tried actually. I need a more hardcore solution

[starjax]

you can run scanpst to see if it is damanged. or you can use "easy file recovery pro" from ontrack. its expensive but works great.

[davemendoza]

Thank you, however, I have NOT lost data, my problem is that I have somehow doubled up with I imported the pst file after reloading WINDOWS XP
My colleague told me that it is likely that When I stopped or pushed buttopn twice it somehow intertwined two downloads of the data even though my files in my inbox look perfectly normal and not duplicated.

My question is how to parse the pst to make it the true size repesentation which makes it ..or should be only HALF the size

Thanks

[starjax]

I concure with your friends assesment. Still doesn't change my advice. Look, you have either a pst file that is damanged. our think in terms of lost or unaccessable. In truth it means any number of things. the scanpst tool fixes any number of errors. see here for additional details: http://www.slipstick...ems/scanpst.htm. at worst all you do is loose about 30 min. while scan pst is running (probably much less time required for it to run).
.... ok, you may not realize it but the pst file is a simple database. the compacting tool is the first step in running preventative maintenance. if it can't or doesn't change anything then you need to run scanpst.

now if you don't want to run scanpst then I suggest that you run the archive funtion. it will extract all the emails and keep the data structure and place them into a new pst file. If you do this and the file size is still much larger then go through and check for duplicate messages, attachements ect.

many tools listed here: http://www.slipstick...ousekeeping.htm
not many free tools, especially for compacting. look through the list. there are at least some trials available.

[davemendoza]

Much appreciated

[davemendoza]

WHere can I find the data management folder that houses he original outlook pst files to scan it? I try and try and cannot locate anything other than my backup file

[starjax]

typically its stored in the \documents and settings\yourname\local settings\application data\microsoft\outlook

make sure you have "show hidden files and folders" selected under tools/folder options.