Archive files (Outlook 2000)

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I have archived my Outlook folders to reduce the size of my PST file (270megs). To my great surprise after the archive process my Outlook.pst file is still 270megs and I now have an archive.pst file that is 150megs. Why didn’t the outlook.pst file shrink? If it doesn’t why archive?

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Try compacting it – ‘though I think it will do this automatically in time.

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I think Outlook 2000 automatically compacts/compresses the pst file. So far the size today has decrease from about 270megs to 265megs. This seems strange and not worth the time and inconvenience of archiving.

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did you have it set to delete the messages after archiving?

FWIW, i never use archive. instead, i copy the pst and rename it for the month and year, then delete messages, calendar items and journaled items from the current pst that i don’t expect to need but want backuped up.

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MJ, please correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve just been told by my systems people that the .pst file is the archive file itself, created by the archive process, and that the .ost file is the “live” file. If that’s the case, then this thread doesn’t really make sense to me, as the .pst wouldn’t be compacted by archiving, but would grow as new items were added to it. Help!

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You’re half wrong or more correctly, your systems people are half wrong. It really depends on the sititutation.

In your situtation, pst’s are archives for your exchange mailbox (and it’s offline store, the ost).

For about half the outlook users, a pst is their mailbox folder since they don’t use exchange server. They often have two (or more) psts, the one that is their mailbox and the one they use for archiving.

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