PST files are an essential part of the Outlook program and stores all the Microsoft Outlook items such as e-mails, notes, contacts, journals, calendars, attachments and other Outlook items in it. All the Microsoft Outlook objects are stored in this single file . Proper management of PST files is essential because if it gets corrupted or damaged then whole working of Outlook gets affected. A .pst file is stored in local hard drive of a user. But as the time passes and with the increase in the incoming mails, the size of mailbox increases and PST comes under the threat.
Before discussing the issues that arises due to the size of .pst file, lets have a look at the size specifications for a .pst file.
PST File Size Limit as per Microsoft Outlook Versions :
Outlook 2010 : 50 GB
Outlook 2007 and 2003 : 20 GB
Outlook 2002 and earlier versions : 2 GB maximum size limit.
When the size of .pst file increases more than the specified maximum limit then it results in the slow processing of Outlook and other performance issues. To deal with such problems Microsoft introduced an inbuilt utility known as PST2GB.exe. This utility truncates the data in large .pst file upto a certain limit and helps in reducing the size of .pst file.
Steps to use pst2gb.exe :
1. Download the tool pst2gb.exe from Microsoft Download Center.
2. Browse and open the large .pst file.
3. Click on Create to create the truncated data with name and location and then save it.
4. Specify the amount of data that you want to be truncated.
5. Now use Inbox Repair Tool(Scanpst.exe) on this new truncated .pst file.
6. Open this repaired .pst file. But if the file does not open then discard the truncated file and again start process with original .pst file.
2. Browse and open the large .pst file.
3. Click on Create to create the truncated data with name and location and then save it.
4. Specify the amount of data that you want to be truncated.
5. Now use Inbox Repair Tool(Scanpst.exe) on this new truncated .pst file.
6. Open this repaired .pst file. But if the file does not open then discard the truncated file and again start process with original .pst file.
Somehow, if the above described process does not work properly then you can use other options to split pst file. A third party solution for splitting a large PST file can helps in a professional and secure manner.
To split pst file into small and manageable .pst files, PST File Splitter software from Stellar works in an outstanding manner. It allows to split pst file based on different criteria like date, time, email Id and folder size. It is Easy to install and fully “Do it yourself software” and completely helps in reducing the size of a large .pst file.
