Outlook 2002 and earlier have a 2gb limit I exceeded… Now What?
Johnathan from Minnesota writes in:
My IT manager uses Office XP aka 2002. His outlook pst just touched over 2gb. It happened while Outlook was opened and it closed. He couldn’t open it again. I looked up the error message on Microsoft and they said Outlook XP (and outlook 2000) can not recognize a pst larger than 2gb. There is a truncate tool and FIXPST tool. I tried using the first and cut it down about 50mb. This says it kills stuff from the end of the file – but what can i do?
I then ran FIXPST and it fails at the last step. HELP!! I read this from a Microsoft KB here.
Errors have been detected in the file. Quit all mail-enabled applications, and then use the Inbox Repair Tool.
So for our final answer: You can upgrade to any newer version of Outlook to fix your problem (big Surprise!) or crop your pst and then run fixpst. It is very time consuming and will eat some of your messages (Hence Croping). And then there is that 3rd party app that Billy Gates suggested called RecoveryToolbox if you can not deal with losing data.
So Remember OUTLOOK 2002/XP BAD!! 2GB PST FILE LIMIT!
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about 4 years ago
u can upgrade to 2003 or 2007 and it should be fine. There is no limit on those just make sure to back up the pst before you do anything. also fully patch your office installation first.
awesome site guys keep it up!
about 4 years ago
We used this http://www.recoverytoolbox.com/outlook.html
i think it was $50 for the single personal use one. it extracted everything to .eml and vcf we recovered everything. i used the crop tool and lost so much data. i had to keep trying and cuting. i had the pst down to 1.3gb before the fixpst tool would complete. i lost way to much data used this recovery toolbox progie and got all my data. very much worth it.
about 4 years ago
Why is Outlook 2002 the only version with a size cap on the pst? Does anyone else find that strange?
Yeah and ummm Billy that is a great program we have used it before. they make one for oe as well.
about 4 years ago
Not sure on this but I think Outlook 2003 and later have a 20 gb limit.
about 4 years ago
Annon – yes and no. Outlook 2003 and 2007 out of the box have a 20gb limit BUT you can alter it all the way up to 33TB yes that is TeraBytes.
“Increase in maximum size of PST/OST files to a theoretical 33TB; administrator can control size with a policy.”
Microsoft KB Article 830336/
about 3 years ago
For work with Outlook files,use-opening ost file,
was developed to open *.ost files and convert them to *.pst format,permit to open *.ost files and convert them into *.pst files, that can be opened by any program, compatible with Microsoft Outlook email client,allows opening ost files and to store your personal data independently from Microsoft Exchange Server, it is very important, if you’d like to access your contacts and email archive from outside of your company,convert them to a suitable format, that can be read by other email clients,extract the files in *.vcf, *.eml and *.txt formats.
about 3 years ago
When i was in similar situation i use next tool-ost to pst convert,as how as i remember software is free,it convert all information from Microsoft Exchange (files with the .ost extension) into files of the Microsoft Outlook mail client (.pst files) – OstToPst procedure,allows you to effectively solve problem ost pst conversion,can use the ost to pst conversion tool to easily move your messages, contacts, notes, meetings, reminders, tasks and all other information,effectively convert all information from the local Microsoft Exchange storage into a Microsoft Outlook file – ost pst conversion (Microsoft Outlook .pst converter),allows you to convert Ost Pst data not only from good, but also from corrupted OST files – .OST file recovery software.
about 2 years ago
There is a not bad software which works with mails-view ost files,it is free as how as i know,program “allows to recover *.ost files, when Microsoft Exchange Server gets out of order and your data may be lost,open damaged files, you can open your corrupted *.ost file and estimate data losses,can convert *.ost files to *.pst files, that can be easily opened by any email client, compatible with Microsoft Outlook,convert your *.ost to *.pst, but to extract a list of files in such formats, as: *.eml. *.vcf and *.txt,allows to view a ost file and avoid extracting, for example, 50 Mb of your content, you can extract all files from .ost viewer mail, than just to copy and paste emails and contacts, that you need,view ost file runs under all versions of Windows operating system, such as: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows Vista.
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about 1 year ago
as i remember one of my friend faces similar problem some weeks ago, he used stellar phoenix convert ost pst tool, that converts the ost file into outlook usable pst file. The ost pst conversion tool recovers all content of ost file, it also recovers encrypted or password protected files.
about 1 year ago
In such a case i recommend to use ost to pst conversion software, that converts inaccessible ost file to Outlook accessible pst file. Such tools recovers all the components of teh OSt files such as emails, notes, tasks, journals, calendar entries etc.