Outlook .PST File not importing

[MrAlex2You]

I have a client who needs to transfer his .PST file to a new computer.

Background: We set up his new computer and Outlook along with it. All of his Inbox downloaded overnight but unfortunately, his Sent box was not full of emails. Actually, everything but about 2 weeks of emails (the past 2 weeks' emails) were missing. So, while looking at his .PST files, I noticed he had two - one of them was named 'archive' and the other was 'Outlook'. I assumed the the one named 'Outlook' was an entire replica of what his Outlook was at one point, whenever it was last backed up.

So, I imported everything from 'archive', but now we are missing mail in the Sent box only from last November to the past two weeks. This is a relatively small gap, considering the fact that he has 35,000+ emails recovered from the set up and importing of the first .PST file. The problem is, the other .PST named 'Outlook' is 19+ GB. From what I understand, Outlook will not import files that are over 2GB?

I'm very confused here - I'm trying various things and cannot manage to import this. I'm also tired of (LITERALLY) 18 calls a day.

 

[datagnostic]

Hello Alex

Is this an Exchange environment? If so, I think the 'Outlook' file you are referring too is actually an OST file?

What version of Outlook is this? Because the maximum file sizes for PST depend on the format of your file, eiter ANSI or Unicode.
Generally, this in turn depends on the outlook version you are using.

More info about this here: http://email.about.com/od/outlook/f/pst_size_limit.htm

In my experience, it's best not to let PST's grow too large. I've had people lose their entire e-mail archives because of corruption... Outlook does have a PST repair tool included, which checks the files for consistency and repairs if possible.

 

[OfficeTechs]

download the trial of PST walker from pstwalker.com and use that to open your PST file.

 

[dgiles79]

The 2GB PST limit was on the old format (Office XP/2002 and earlier). 19GB is very large though, and the size could be causing an issue. I would use the PST repair tool mentioned earlier.

Also, are you able to pull up the PST on the original computer to see if the Sent items show up there?

 

[Majestic]

I have a client who needs to transfer his .PST file to a new computer.

Background: We set up his new computer and Outlook along with it. All of his Inbox downloaded overnight but unfortunately, his Sent box was not full of emails. Actually, everything but about 2 weeks of emails (the past 2 weeks' emails) were missing. So, while looking at his .PST files, I noticed he had two - one of them was named 'archive' and the other was 'Outlook'. I assumed the the one named 'Outlook' was an entire replica of what his Outlook was at one point, whenever it was last backed up.

So, I imported everything from 'archive', but now we are missing mail in the Sent box only from last November to the past two weeks. This is a relatively small gap, considering the fact that he has 35,000+ emails recovered from the set up and importing of the first .PST file. The problem is, the other .PST named 'Outlook' is 19+ GB. From what I understand, Outlook will not import files that are over 2GB?

I'm very confused here - I'm trying various things and cannot manage to import this. I'm also tired of (LITERALLY) 18 calls a day.

Instead of IMPORTING when don't you simply try to OPEN the file? Then copy as you like. Go to file -> Open -> Outlook data file.

Majestic

 

[MrAlex2You]

I appreciate the input from everyone. Fortunately, I was quick to drop this client for a variety of reasons and did not have an opportunity to continue with this particular venture.

 

[NYJimbo]

download the trial of PST walker from pstwalker.com and use that to open your PST file.

Not to hijack, but have you used this to fix messed up giant PST files ? I have been doing a lot of transfers or reinstalls and some of these PSTs are 10gigs or more and at some point I'm gonna hit one I cant recover in its entirety and want some really good tools for trying to recover PST files.

 

[drjones]

Instead of IMPORTING when don't you simply try to OPEN the file? Then copy as you like. Go to file -> Open -> Outlook data file.

Majestic

This.

I don't think I've ever done the import/export, unless there was specific data I needed to get at, like today needed to import a calendar from a PST into a new Exchange acct.

I always just copy/paste the PST between machines, never had an issue.