bloated PST file in Outlook 2010

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My hard drive crashed on a Toshiba laptop running Win XP and had to be replaced. Unfortunately the Outlook 2010 PST file, which is over 5 GB now, was corrupted in the process and much of the data was lost. I ran Scanpst.exe which indicated that there were 39 folders of which only 9 are visible now. However, it was unable to complete the repair process and stopped responding. I also ran a trial version of Datanumen, but it didn’t even come close to recovering everything so I didn’t bother buying it since it is rather expensive anyway for a one-time deal.

Actually, I don’t even need most of what was lost since it’s only previous employment correspondence. However, I would like to save the rest of what I can see, some of which dates back to 2005.

What I’m wondering is if it would be possible to set up an additional account from where I could then drag and drop the original folders into the new one. From here I could presumably set this up as my primary account and delete the old one. Then presumably I would be left with a pared down PST file. Does this sound feasible or am I missing something?

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The problem is knowing whether you will be able to read from the corrupted pst file, even if it is not your mail file. It’s quite likely that you won’t, but I can’t be definitive about it.

I suppose you have no backups?

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Of course I have a backup. I’m running a portable external WD hard drive as we speak. And I am currently using the previously corrupted pst file. The issue for me is whether I would be able to modify it successfully so that I can discard the hidden parts and salvage the rest of it that is visible.

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I meant a backup of the non corrupted pst file?

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Oh, I’m sorry. I misunderstood you. Actually I do have a backup from about a year ago before it crashed, which is almost 3 GB. How could I use that?

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Outlook files can be opened from the File menu. You will see it in your folder pane and you can browse it just like you can browse the folders in your default pst file. You can simply select messages from the old file (by the usual method – click, shift + click) and then drag and drop them into folders from your current file.

You can try this with the corrupt file, but most likely you won’t be able to open it – I never experienced pst corruption, so I am not sure about it.

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I would say that is a highly UNusual method! LOL

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Outlook files can be opened from the File menu. You will see it in your folder pane and you can browse it just like you can browse the folders in your default pst file. You can simply select messages from the old file (by the usual method – click, shift + click) and then drag and drop them into folders from your current file.

You can try this with the corrupt file, but most likely you won’t be able to open it – I never experienced pst corruption, so I am not sure about it.

LOL – that’s a very UNUSUAL method!

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You can also try File > Import > import from another program or file > Personal Folder File. This is for Outlook 2007. I’m sure Outlook 2010 has a similar function.

Jerry

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OK. I think I’m starting to make some progress thanks to Rui who reminded me that I fortunately did indeed have a backup file, which was readable. I took your suggestion also and opened it as an Outlook data file in a Personal Folders. Then I deleted all the extraneous files and folders that I didn’t want. Next I would like to drag and drop the desired subsequent files from my currently active pst file there. However, my next question is how do I save the edited version located in the Personal Folders as a standalone pst file so that I can re-import it in my main account?

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By edited version, you mean the file you obtained from the backup and that you have now changed? Where is that file currently located? It will still be at the folder where you placed it. You can copy it and rename it to something that will let you know that it is the edited version.

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That’s right. I sent the former backup file to another folder on my hard drive since if I only copied it, then it might point back to the external hard drive. However, the odd thing is that even tho I deleted several large folders, those changes haven’t been reflected in the file size, which is still almost 3 GB. How can I save the pst file in my Personal Folders so that it will have a smaller file size? That’s really the crux of my problem right now… if it’s even possible.

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When you delete stuff from a pst file, the file size does not decrease until you compact the file. That’s how pst files behave. If you right click the entry in the folder pane for your file and right click it, then choose the Data File Properties menu option (I am already using Office 2013 so the menu name may be a little different), a dialog with an Advanced button will show up. Click it and you will get another dialog with a Compact Now button. This is the button to click to start compacting the pst file.

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I see. However, I’m starting to think about another way to skin this cat. What about if I started with an entirely new Gmail account and declined importing the current pst file, which I could open later in my Personal Folders and then simply add the messages that I wanted to save from it? Couldn’t I accomplish the same thing that way without any of the accumulated baggage and end up with a really streamlined pst file?

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I don’t see the role the gmail account here (unless you mean any account in general could be use and you just want a blank pst file).

Anyway I suppose that is another possible method.

I do compact my pst files regularly.

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I don’t know about other email providers, but at least with Gmail you have the option to enable POP for all mail or enable POP for mail that arrives from now on, the latter choice of which would be preferable for me.

In that scenario, I guess the only thing remaining would be for me to figure out how to save the contact list so that I could add it later.

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You can copy and move contacts between pst files exactly the same way you did with messages.

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That’s very good to know. Thanks for the tip. I’ll let you know how it turns out when I’m finished.

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Actually, I had already tried scanpst.exe, but it choked up on me and wouldn’t finish. I also ran a trial version of Kernel for Outlook PST Repair, which ran for hours literally and recovered virtually everything as far as I could tell. If I hadn’t found a backup pst file on an external hard drive that was laying around, I would have glady paid the fifty bucks for it, but fortunately it wasn’t required.

As it turns out, I created a brand new pst file in Gmail and added the old one in Personal Folders from which I dragged over the messages that I wanted to save. Then I deleted the old file and compacted the new one. All went fairly well despite being rather cumbersome. Even managed to salvage a CSV file of contacts that I was able to import smoothly. The only disappointment is that the file size is still somewhat large (3.4 GB), but at least it opens much more quickly now that I have migrated from a 3 year old Toshiba running on Win XP to a new HP laptop with Win 7 that is much more zippy (3rd gen i5 w/8 GB RAM).

I see that I’ve still got more than 11,000 messages in my Inbox, so I guess the lesson out of all this is that I still need to prune out more of them if I really want to reduce my file size. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be as imperative as when my system was running so sluggishly, but I may still get around to it one of these days.

In parting, I just want to say for the record that I’m VERY impressed with the responses in this forum, which have been outstanding. I figured that I should have been able to work thru this issue that had been vexing me for some time and was pleasantly surprised by the ongoing support. Believe me, I’ve been to a lot of other forums where the thread just sort of petered out for lack of interest, which is quite disappointing. I would certainly come back here in a heartbeat if I get stumped on anything else.

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I am glad you solved your problem in a satisfactory manner and I am glad you found the help you needed here :).

As to the size of the pst file, I handle it by keeping one pst file per calendar year. I archive old posts from a given year into their own .pst file and keep the default one only for “current” posts. It works rather as intended, my regular file almost never goes about 500 MB.

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That’s a good idea, but I don’t suppose there’s any way to do that after the fact as in my case, is there?

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There is nothing preventing you from doing that now. You just need to decide how to start – you could simply archive all the files from 2011 and before and start from there. When you archive, you will have the possibility of defining the name of the archive file and you can choose a descriptive enough name. Then in 2013, you can archive the messages from 2012 and you will be all set.

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