(Help)Any Outlook 2007 Gurus Out There?

[y0himba]

Here is my issue.  I have been backing up my .pst (email) since Windows XP.  It has grown and I have emails saved from...well, forever? Always importing and then backing up, blah blah.  I have them saved in a folder structure, SAVED is the root, the under that there are 6 sub-folders. 

I need a rule that will run on the main folder and all sub folders, moving all mail that is older than 2008 to another folder, or archiving it, automagically.  I am trying to clean the PST, it is around 900mb.  I would like to create a separate PST of all this old mail that I can then put on CD or DVD in case I ever need it, while reducing the file size of the PSt that I actually use.

Any takers?

[Curt]

Your question is much too difficult for me, but...
why not just use a back up program, to save the mails,
and then simply delete the old ones?

[Carol Haynes]

Can't you simply use the Archive function built into Outlook - you can specify to archive emails older than a certain age and automatically delete them from the current PST file. It will also preserve the folder structure in the archive.

Another good way of doing this is to use MailStore Home edition which will archive all of your email in an easily searchable database. You can even reply to emails and extract attachments etc. within MailStore. You can also instruct mailstore to remove emails older than a certain date (and other rules). The home version is free and works great. You can also use it with POP and IMAP servers and various other services. Data can be restored top any service you fancy (including Outlook) one email at a time or any number of emails you want (including the whole archive). It also has an automated CD/DVD/Folder backup routine to keep copies of the archive.

[y0himba]

Your question is much too difficult for me, but...
why not just use a back up program, to save the mails,
and then simply delete the old ones?

-Curt (May 25, 2010, 07:52 AM)

There are so many that going through and deleting them 1 by 1 would take far too long.  

Can't you simply use the Archive function built into Outlook - you can specify to archive emails older than a certain age and automatically delete them from the current PST file. It will also preserve the folder structure in the archive.

Another good way of doing this is to use MailStore Home edition which will archive all of your email in an easily searchable database. You can even reply to emails and extract attachments etc. within MailStore. You can also instruct mailstore to remove emails older than a certain date (and other rules). The home version is free and works great. You can also use it with POP and IMAP servers and various other services. Data can be restored top any service you fancy (including Outlook) one email at a time or any number of emails you want (including the whole archive). It also has an automated CD/DVD/Folder backup routine to keep copies of the archive.

-Carol Haynes (May 25, 2010, 08:17 AM)

As for archive, it only deletes them, not moves them to another folder/PST that I can back up.  Mailstore would just create yet another file.  Why would I need that?  I use Microsoft's own Personal Folders Backup, and it works perfectly to back up the PST.  I need to move all those messages to a separate PST for archiving.

[Stoic Joker]

As for archive, it only deletes them, not moves them to another folder/PST that I can back up.

-y0himba (May 25, 2010, 08:22 AM)

The Outlook Archive function moves everything archived to Archive.pst. Which will be in the same location as the default Outlook.pst.

[superboyac]

The archive function shouldn't delete the emails.  It moves the emails.  i think in the settings it uses the word "delete" but I think it's confusing.  Make sure your stuff gets moved to an archive file.  Here's a screenshot of my preferences:


I don't think that answers your question specifically, but maybe it helps.

It should be easy to make a rule that moves all messages older than 2008 into a folder, and then you can manually archive that folder.  I don't know if the rule can archive it also, i don't see why not.  I hate Outlook's rules interface.  I hate a lot of things about Outlook.  I have a thread here about Outlook...I think I curse in it more than any other thread around here.

[Carol Haynes]

As for archive, it only deletes them, not moves them to another folder/PST that I can back up.  Mailstore would just create yet another file.  Why would I need that?  I use Microsoft's own Personal Folders Backup, and it works perfectly to back up the PST.  I need to move all those messages to a separate PST for archiving.

It doesn't delete the email it creates a new PST file (or uses an existing one if you choose one that exists) and moves the archived emails there - effectively a copy to a folder then delete operation. You can also move other stuff, such as calendar, jnotes. etc. into the archive PST file). You can also create multiple archive PST files if you want and move them year by year so you have an annual archive or whatever.

The reason I suggested MailStore is because I used to use archive to do the above and now find MailStore much more convenient. It has none of the restrictions of PST files for emails and it means you have a complete archive of all of your emails in one place which is fully indexed and quickly searchable (much faster than Outlook search).

Yes you would end up with extra files on your system but so what? Disk space is cheap and MailStore provides a free excellent way of maintaining a useful complete archive whilst keeping Outlook lean and mean. It also means you don't have to open archive PST files in Outlook (and remember to manually close them again) which is a pain and leads to Outlook crawling again.

It's up to you though.

There is a simple rule structure that you could use too:

If mail arrived in specific date range move it to specified folder (can be in another loaded PST file - ie. effectively archive it to a folder)

Note you can run rules like this on a specific folder and specify a specific destination or you can run it on the whol folder tree in your main PST file and have it move everything to an archive folder.