PST Size Management Tools

Split Pst File - Personal Folder file or .pst is the storage medium used to store MAPI (Mail Application Program Interface) objects that are created or received using Microsoft Outlook. One of its peculiar properties is that it can only be accessed by MAPI programs like Microsoft Outlook. By default, Outlook 2002 and earlier versions allow only 16,384 items in the file. The items can be message, task, and folder etc., where each folder can hold up to 16,384 items. The overall size limit of PST in Outlook 2002 and earlier versions is 2 GB. If you exceed this file size limit, odds are the file might get corrupt. Despite of using ‘Allow upgrade to large tables’ option (which is an option to increase the number of items to 65,536 items), the default size of PST remains the same. This limitation is the strong factor causing slow Outlook performance. Thus, it is recommended to Split PST. It is a process to divide a large sized PST file into several small PST files.The further reading describes various tools using which you can manage the size of PST file:

PST Archiving

Windows allows that more than one PST files can reside on the system. This means that you can define a PST as your primary store that can store all the incoming emails of Inbox and also other Outlook folders such as Contacts, Journals, Notes, Sent Items, Deleted Items and others. You can also define another PST file to serve the purpose of secondary store. It implies that you can either move items from your primary store or set certain Inbox Rules for this purpose.This explains the concept of PST archiving. To do so, follow these steps:

• Open Microsoft Outlook and select File->Data Management in its menu
• Next, you should click Add
• Choose the required file format that should be PST and click OK
• Specify the name of new PST file and click OK. You can optionally password protect the file
• To manually archive the PST, you need to drag and drop the complete folder to the root folder, which appears in the Mail Folders
• You can alternatively choose to select an individual item from the original PST and paste it to the new one
• You can also define some Inbox rules to move items to the file

pst2gb.exe tool

Also known as PST and OST crop tool, this tool is used to truncate a PST file to under 2 GB. To use the tool, you define a definite file size that is to be truncated from the file. But it is rarely recommended to use for the reason that it doesn’t keep but deletes the truncated data, hence causes data loss. Before using the tool, make sure that the hard disk contains about 2 GB of free space and file is backed up to prevent any failure. To use the tool, you need to follow these steps:

• You need to download the pst2gb.exe tool
• Next, you should create a new folder to extract the 2gb152.exe file
• Start the Pst2gb.exe program
• You should then open the affected PST file and click Create and specify the name and location of data file to be truncated. Click Save
• Specify the size of file that you want to truncate from PST
• You should check and repair the consistency errors of this new PST file using Inbox Repair Tool. You can optionally compact the repaired PST file
• However, if you find that the file is failing to open, you should try the above process again but with different file size to be truncated as used earlier.

Split PST File Tools

These are special purpose tools that are designed to Split PST File. Such software feature read-only design, safe data conduct and powerful ability to divide a large sized PST file into several small PST files, thereby reducing the overall size of PST. These Split PST utilities employ safe procedures. You can use these software to PST file of any size.

PST File Splitter is an advanced Split PST application with advanced options. It is a read-only tool embedded with safe procedures. It supports Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000. The software offers you two options to Split PST File: by date and by email ID. It is a comprehensive product that also provides options to repair a damaged PST file and recover a lost PST password. It is compatible with Windows Vista, XP, 2003, 2000 and NT.