Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of naifyboy123
naifyboy123Flag for Afghanistan

asked on

How to split 8gb PST files

I have a user with an 8gb pst.
it is not corrupt but i want to split it up by date to ensure performance is improved and any risk of corruption is reduced. i estimate the split will create up to 16 new psts.
i have found a few tools on the internet but most will not support splitting such a large pst.
can anyone please tell me what i can use to complete this taks.
thanks
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of kpltechgroup
kpltechgroup

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of naifyboy123

ASKER

as mentioned i already have a pst...not sure what you mean?
Outlook 2010
You could just use the Archive function of Outlook. You can adjust the way it archives and it archives by date. I have 3 archives all with different from - to dates. I think 16 archives might be a bit much, but that is just my view. Take a look at how archive works and see if it fits your needs. ... Thinkpads_User
Avatar of kpltechgroup
kpltechgroup

Right so if you want to arrange by date you would have to export the inbox based on selected files.

So you have INBOX right but outlook will only allow you to export the whole inbox as a PST, workaround is do it through a folder

So you split the emails up into folders in inbox and then re-export the PST's
-----IF YOU WANT IT BY DATE-----

If you simply just want to split the file up into smaller files ie for DVD or CD storage then simply download Winrar from rarlabs.com (free)

and add to an arachive.

Let me know which route you take and ill explain further
Avatar of Akhater
why don't use the export function of outlook to export date chunks ?

 the export dialog include a Filter button
kpltechgroup:- it's too big to put into folders. i simply want to split it up into smaller files

Akhater:- the outlook filter option does not provide date options for all mail. you can only select certain types of mail such as sent or received.
Ok you just want to split into little files. Goto http://rarlabs.com/download.htm

and download for the appropriate windows version. let me know when you have done this i will walk you through the split up
downloaded and installed
ok now right click on the PST you want to split up and click "Add to Archive"

and near the bottom left of the General tab we see "Split to Volumes, bytes"

Here enter the amount of bytes you want the cut off at, there are some preexisting settings but you can go custom too.

So.... if you wanted every 1000MB(1`GB)  you could enter in 1000000000
Oh Right then hit Ok of course... Since its also personal data you could password protect the rar,

When you want to open the rar havee all the split's in one directory and double click on any of them and this will stich the file together again.
kpltechgroup:- thanks i have just completed this but it does not give me what i need.
i need to plsit the psts and for them to remain separate. by using this method it brings the split files back to one file again.
naifyboy123  - Back a bit, I suggested the built-in and free Auto Archive function. It does what you want and works right within the Outlook framework. Did you consider that?  ... Thinkpads_User
you said you just needed the split? they will remain seperate. you leave them in the rar's until the PST is needed. For backup or whatever reason. You cant split the PST into smaller PST's and be able to import 1 of 8 PST's that are lets say all of 2001. Even if you took the whole inbox and moved it into seperate folders in outlook then exported that you have no way of telling how big the PST will be. This is the easiest method.

So lets say your client or whatever lost all of 2010 and needed it recovered you would want to take 2010 PST and import am i right?

But this way you could import the whole PST and just insert back into his PST what hes missing then delete the pst you imported.


Here's what Microsoft says regarding Outlook 2007:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932086

Please read.
i thought my question was clear that i need to split them up by date. maybe not.
as for the auto archive, i already have the pst, have checked the settings of auto archive to see how this can help me split up an existing pst and cannot see how to do that.
Take the Inbox. and move it into sub folders based on dates and export those created folders
kpltechgroup:- thanks but moving that amount of mail will take far too long. i need an automated way of doing this
It just a sub folder in the inbox theoretically it will just add a flag to it. Just try it with a year and then export that folder to PST.

you aren't moving it to another account or actually folder on the desktop.

What is your are trying to do maybe we can help better if we know your end result
i need to split up the pst into multiple psts.
ideally these should be split by date. after spliting them the user will wish to add them as data files to outlook either one at a time or all together.
naifyboy123 - Auto Archive does not split up a PST file per se. What you can do is archive after a certain date (so many months). That will move the email by folder into an archive.pst file that are as old or older than the number of months specified. That creates the oldest file and the emails now are not in the main PST file.

Do it again for the next number of months (it may be the same).

You will have to do this several times, but the operation is simple and automatic for one archive operation.

So for example, I have an archive prior to 2006, another one for 2006-2008 an a third one newer than 2008. I keep about 6 months of mail in my main PST.

.... Thinkpads_User
>>>>  after spliting them the user will wish to add them as data files to outlook either one at a time or all

That is more or less automatic with archives. I have mail going back to 1996 in four PST files, all current in Outlook and all indexed. .... Thinkpads_User
thinkpads_user:- thanks i know all about setting up archiving for a live mailbox. however, this is an existing pst with old mail in. I.E it was already archived to create the pst. i am not looking to set something up from now on, i am looking to split an existing pst.
Thank you. That the PST was an archive already was not altogether clear to me.  So if the ideas here will not work for you, consider a commercial tool such as http://www.splitpstfile.org/split-up-pst-file.html

It should handle the size of file you have. ... Thinkpads_User
I still think that rar for even backup and less corruption possibilities should be done with winrar.

This will then allow them to rebuild the PST and import it into outlook, take what they need from it, and then delete
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
all - thanks for your help. whilst the answers don't provide an exact solution, i have found them helpful and as such have split the points.
thanks again..
Thanks for the points did you get it figure it out?
no - i think the only way is to do it manually but also recommend the rar solution to the user.
That how we do it here at work on our daily backups it one of those things that MS overlooked :/

drop me a line if you ever need any more help mike@ jayandtonyservices.com

Good Luck with everything
Archiving PST files annually is the real long term solution to maintaining manageable size PST files.  There are several options for doing so:

Method 1 = Manually (as previously described by DOSDET2)
Method 2 = Using Outlook's Archive or File Export features (as previously described by kpltechgroup)

Method 3 = By an Exchange Admin using the Exchange Power Shell to run a command script to create a user's PST file where the admin can specify to include all content within a specific date range.

Method 3 is my preference, but one would need admin access to the Exchange Server.

Best Regards,

BitCooler