Possible serious archive bug?

[Martin]

I just ran into this one. Not enough data to know what's going on yet.

Outlook Pro 2003, all current updates and SP's

I have archiving setup to move messages older than two years to an archive
PST. I've been doing this for a few years. No problems. In fact, every so
often I'd need to find old emails and I'd simply search the archive pst.
This has worked fine for me since, I'd say, Outlook 2000. Both main pst and
archive pst have always been stored at exactly the same location for years.
No changes there.

Anyhow, a few months ago I made some changes to the folder structure of the
main pst. I consolidated some branches, renamed some folders and created
new ones. No problems whatsoever. Rules automatically changed to match and
new ones were created to sort into new folders. Everything seemed to be
working as advertised.

The other day I went to search for an old email and, to my surprise, most of
the folders in the archive pst that used to have hundreds and hundreds of
archived emails are now completely EMPTY! I looked and none of the old
messages seem to have moved to a new location. They are simply gone. It
seems that I have lost years' worth of archived email data. The only saving
grace might be that I have a backup of the pst's dating back prior to my
tree structure changes.

Does anyone know why this may have happened? Is this a "feature"? I am
seriously considering disabling archiving. I just can't risk loosing data
this way.

Thanks,

-Martin

 

[Brian Tillman]

Outlook Pro 2003, all current updates and SP's

I have archiving setup to move messages older than two years to an
archive PST. I've been doing this for a few years. No problems. In
fact, every so often I'd need to find old emails and I'd simply
search the archive pst. This has worked fine for me since, I'd say,
Outlook 2000. Both main pst and archive pst have always been stored
at exactly the same location for years. No changes there.

Since they're "years" old, I have to ask whether they're ANSI or Unicode
PSTs and, if the former, how large they are.

 

[Martin]

Since they're "years" old, I have to ask whether they're ANSI or Unicode

PSTs and, if the former, how large they are.

I've never explicitly chosen either encoding. I don't know.

If I click "Advanced" after selecting Properties for each of the two pst's,
under Format it reads: "Personal Folders File (97-2002)"

I have some emails in there dating back to at least 1997. Some earlier than
that via import into Outlook when I switched to Outlook back then. Any
emails prior to that (dating back at least twenty years from today) have
been archived outside of Outlook.

-Martin

 

[Brian Tillman]

If I click "Advanced" after selecting Properties for each of the two
pst's, under Format it reads: "Personal Folders File (97-2002)"

They are the old-style ANSI PSTs, then, and can hold at most 2GB. Trouble
is likely to start for you if they reach 1.8GB. Again, how large are they?

 

[Martin]

They are the old-style ANSI PSTs, then, and can hold at most 2GB. Trouble

is likely to start for you if they reach 1.8GB. Again, how large are
they?

Sorry. The primary is about 0.9GB, archive about 0.2GB

Is there a way to convert them?
Other than size limitations, is there a compelling reason to do so?

Thanks,

-Martin

 

[Martin]

On the conversion, from Microsoft's site:

"There is no automatic way of converting a Microsoft Outlook 97-2002
Personal Folders file (.pst) to a Unicode-capable Microsoft Outlook Personal
Folders file (.pst) file. The easiest way to convert a non-Unicode .pst file
is to create a new data file in the Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders file
(.pst) format that supports Unicode and then import items from the old data
file to the new Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders file (.pst)."

Other than UNICODE and max file size, I haven't found any other
justification to make the conversion.

-Martin

 

[Brian Tillman]

Other than UNICODE and max file size, I haven't found any other
justification to make the conversion.

In general, those are compelling reasons, especially the maximum size. If
they are not for you, then, don't bother.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Did you perchance have archiving set on the folders in the archive .pst file itself?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers