.PST file updates too often --> Backup overload

[leguerri]

Hello everyone,
I'm not sure if I'm in the right group, but please direct me to the right
place otherwise.

I'm in charge of backup procedures in our organisation. Our customers use
Outlook for e-mail management, and store their data in .PST files. I noticed
that the .PST modified date stamp for the file gets changed to current date
when Outlook is being closed, even if no change has been made to the file.
All attached .PST files get their date changed. Also for many users, the
date stamp also changes at a seemingly determined frequency (at every 4
hours in some cases) while their Outlook session is open, even if no change
has been done.

We have monthly, weekly, and daily backups, the 2 latter being incremental.
The problem is that almost all .PST files get uselessly backed up each night
because their date stamp is always changed. This causes an overload and takes
too much space on our tapes.

Is there a way to tell Outlook not to change date stamp when exiting? And
why does the date also changes for some users even while their session is
open at a fixed frequency?
I know detaching some .PST files would solve it, but our users need to keep
most of their .PST attached for easy access.

Thanks for any help on this issue.

Louis-Luc

 

[Roady [MVP]]

No, you can't change this behaviour. When the pst-file expands the time
stamp changes as well.
Do you store these pst-files directly on the network? Note that this is not
recommended and supported by Microsoft. Better is to place the pst-file on
the local harddisk and use the Outlook PST Back Up Add In to write it back
to the server when they close Outlook. Then they will have an option to back
up the file or not. If nothing has changed they should simply choose "No".

Why don't you store/archive these mails in an Exchange database? An Exchange
database is a lot more efficient when it comes to disk space usage as well.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

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