Outlook 2000

The MAXIMUM size of a .pst file is 2GB. This cannot be changed. Microsoft essentially guarentees you will end up with a corrupted .pst file if it grows beyond 2 GB.

There is not a mazimum number of .pst files that can be tied to an email account.

Create at least one other personal folders file and start moving some of your "stuff" to the .pst file.

can try this:

Create a directory on your hard disk called emails. In outlook, create a shorcut on the shortcut bar, and choose look in: file system. browse to the folder you created.

You will now see the emails directory as a shortcut. You can drag and drop emails into this folder, they will keep there structure (they will save as .msg) and they wont take up any space in you .pst file.

E

Whenever people ask me about Outlook flakiness unexplained crashes and freezes, sluggish behaviour and the like ? my first recommendation is to create a brand new outlook.pst file. That sounds like a difficult job, but it isn't. Here's how you do it:
1. Shut down Outlook.
2. Go into Windows Find (Start/Find/Files or Folders, or some such), and find outlook.pst. You may have more than one, in which case you can reincarnate all of them. Remember where the file is located.
3. Right?click on outlook.pst, click Rename, and give it a new name ? say Backup 0012.pst.
4. Start Outlook. It'll bellyache and pitch a fit, but just keep clicking OK or Open ? all the defaults ? and you'll be fine.
5. When Outlook appears, it'll be fresh as the virgin snow. Welt the virgin snow in Colorado, anyway.
6. Make sure Outlook is showing folders (the way power users already have it anyway) by clicking View, and making sure Folder List is checked. Take a look at your folders list. You'll be adding a new folder, and you'll want to be able to identify it when it appears.
7. Inside Outlook, Click File, Open, Personal Folders File. Locate the old outlook.pst file ? presumably called Backup 0012.pst or some such ? in the location you noted in Step 2. Open it. The file will immediately appear in the Folders List, and it'll be called Outlook Today. This is the OLD Outlook Today folder ? not to be confused with the new, fresh Outlook Today folder, which you created back in Step 5.
8. Right?click on this old Outlook Today folder in the Folders List (make sure you don't get the fresh, untouched Outlook Today folder), pick Properties and click Advanced.
9. In the Name box, give the old folder a new name. "Backup 0012" would be appropriate. While you're sitting in this dialog box anyway, click Compact Now and give Outlook a minute or two to compact the archive file.

10. Click OK all the way back out. Start playing around with the old Backup 0012 folder. You?ll see that all of your old stuff is there.
11. If you have any old email you want to put in the new Outlook Today folder ? say, anything in Drafts or in the Outbox ? select all the old messages in Backup 00 12, and click and drag them over to the corresponding folder in Outlook Today. (So you might drag the messages from the Backup 0012 "Drafts" folder to the Outlook Today ?Drafts? folder.)
12. Copy across all your old Contacts, by selecting all the old Contacts (use Ctrl+A) in Backup 0012 and dragging them to the new Contacts folder. Tasks work the same way.
13. Copying appointments (Calendar items) isn't so easy. First, you have to switch into Appointments View: click View, Current View, Active Appointments. Then select all of your appointments (Edit/Select All or Ctrl+A and drag them to the new Outlook Folders Calendar.
In the end you'll have a brand spanking new outlook.pst that will run like the wind (or at least it won't crash as often), populated with all of your important pending messages, and old Contacts, Tasks, and appointments.

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