Differences between 2 PST files
I currently have 2 separate PST files from Exchange Discovery searches.
One was performed by a tech who missed some details and this forced me to run a new discovery with the added info.
Now I need to find a way to compare the 2 PST files and create a new PST that only contains the emails my search found that were not included in the previous search.
At this point, I can't seem to find a good solution to this issue and any help would be greatly appreciated.
One was performed by a tech who missed some details and this forced me to run a new discovery with the added info.
Now I need to find a way to compare the 2 PST files and create a new PST that only contains the emails my search found that were not included in the previous search.
At this point, I can't seem to find a good solution to this issue and any help would be greatly appreciated.
John
These are proprietary databases and the only way you can do this is to open each in Outlook and find the emails or folders you were looking for.
ASKER
There ins't some means of accomplishing this via Powershell after I convert them to CSV, Maybe?
I don't think so. You need Outlook to open PST files.
You can use Powershell to attach PST files to Outlook but not (from what I can see) open the PST files.
Hi James,
Just throwing this out, but you may be able to achieve this using VBA.
You could perhaps recursively loop through every folder and sub-folder, and generate a 'fingerprint' of each item, which is then output as a file (text, csv - whatever).
All the incoming emails will have a Message ID, but the sent items possibly won't.
However you could generate the 'fingerprint' by concatenating, say:
Full Folder Path
Sent / Received Date and Time
Sender
Receipient (First one if more than one)
Subject
Message Length
You can add other things perhaps, but the objective would be to get a unique 'fingerprint' for each item in each of the PSTs that you could then compare in Excel or whatever you like, generating the list of items that are in one and not in the other.
I don't know how to do that myself, but I figure it might give you an idea you can implement, or you could post a new question tagged with Outlook and VBA and see if someone can help.
Hope this helps. Good luck either way!
Alan.
PS: If you do get it to work, I would love to know the details!
Just throwing this out, but you may be able to achieve this using VBA.
You could perhaps recursively loop through every folder and sub-folder, and generate a 'fingerprint' of each item, which is then output as a file (text, csv - whatever).
All the incoming emails will have a Message ID, but the sent items possibly won't.
However you could generate the 'fingerprint' by concatenating, say:
Full Folder Path
Sent / Received Date and Time
Sender
Receipient (First one if more than one)
Subject
Message Length
You can add other things perhaps, but the objective would be to get a unique 'fingerprint' for each item in each of the PSTs that you could then compare in Excel or whatever you like, generating the list of items that are in one and not in the other.
I don't know how to do that myself, but I figure it might give you an idea you can implement, or you could post a new question tagged with Outlook and VBA and see if someone can help.
Hope this helps. Good luck either way!
Alan.
PS: If you do get it to work, I would love to know the details!
Instead of comparing, why dont you just create a new search with all the parameters you need and run it again. That way you dont need to compare them The ediscovery doesn't remove the mail from the mailbox so everything would still be there. Re-run it and get everything you need.
Agreed with timgreen7077. Or you can use 3rd party tool like Stellar outlook toolkit to merge both PST into one.
https://www.stellarinfo.com/email-tools/outlook-toolkit.php
https://www.stellarinfo.com/email-tools/outlook-toolkit.php
ASKER
The problem with running it again is that the attorney's have already combed through 100's of emails in the original PST. They do not want to waste hours having to go back over all of them again. They just want to have a record of the ones that were missed.
Also, they need the full emails; headers, bodies, and all.
Also, they need the full emails; headers, bodies, and all.
Then go for Stellar tool. It has option to merge two pst into one. I myself use this tool.
Stellar tools work fine and I have used them.
Also try importing both into one PST file and then use Outlook Cleanup to remove duplicates.
Also try importing both into one PST file and then use Outlook Cleanup to remove duplicates.
ASKER
Does Stellar have the option to compare the old and new PST files and create a PST with only the emails that were not in the old PST but were in the new PST?
There are 2024 emails in the old pst and 2031 in the new PST. The attorneys want a PST that only contains the 8 emails that constitute the difference between the two PST files.
There are 2024 emails in the old pst and 2031 in the new PST. The attorneys want a PST that only contains the 8 emails that constitute the difference between the two PST files.
No so far as I know. The version I have (1 before more recent) and it does not compare. Combine and cleanup like Outlook - Yes.
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ASKER
Using the tool and instructions provided, I was able to get the needed results. Thank you all for your help on this.