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Moving emails from Exchange mailbox to PST file. Guideline to how big a PST might be in comparison?

My Exchange server is managed by our parent company in a data center offsite. They have recently mandated that mailboxes be <2GB in size so they have recommended that PST files be created and stored on our local NAS for users to move needed emails before a purge. My concern is that the size of these PST files will be massive. I have users that have mailboxes 25gb in size. is there any guideline that can help me figure out how big these PST files will be uncompressed in a PST file? I realize there are variables like the "compressibility" of attachments but I am trying to see what a best guess would be.

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Amit

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Brian B

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Steve B

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Thanks for the suggestions so far. Unfortunately, I have less than zero input on anything relating to the Exchange servers (policies, archiving, etc) so my only option is to have my end users create PST files and archive as needed, making sure to close the file when they are done. My recommendation is going to be that they archive what they need to be under the cap of 2GB and don't archive things that they may need to reference on a daily/weekly basis since my other recommendation will be to close the PST file when it is not needed. Will they do this? We know that answer. Since the PST file will be in their home directory we will have a backup in case corruption happens provided it is reported while we still have backup sets to pull from.

This is going to be a pain. I can really see someone having a corrupt PST, not reporting it and then us not having a backup and then it looks like it is local IT's fault. I know people will need to do this because the other policy states that items older than 3 years will be deleted. If they are like me and use Sent Items a lot, this will be a problem.

Amit

I think you already know the answer. Let me know, if you need any more help.

Steve B

ASKER

Thanks for the suggestions. We ended up having users create PST files knowing the risks. They are aware that the archive should be opened, referenced and then closed. We are backing them up as well. In reality, my users didn't really archive a whole lot.