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Moving pst files -- major problems

Answered Moving pst files -- major problems

  • Saturday, July 14, 2012 10:34 PM
     
     
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    I am trying to move pst files from the users C: drive to a network drive.

    With the user logged off I tried to copy the pst files from the C:\drive to a network drive.
    I then logged on as the use and tried to change the pst settings using control panel and mail.
    The process then went into a CPU bound loop.  I could not delete the old setting because the system said the configuration information was being transferred form the old pst to the new one.  But the new one was a copy of the old one.

    So the question is:
    How do I move pst files from the user's C: drive to a folder under their My Documents?

    We do not have an exchange server.  All accounts are pop accounts.

    http://www.saberman.com

     

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  • Sunday, July 15, 2012 1:41 AM
     
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    Hi,

    I guess you've redirected MyDocuments away from C: onto the server?
    (since by default MyDocuments would be on C:....)

    This basic article should address your question: http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/outlook-help/move-an-outlook-data-file-pst-to-different-folder-HA010378229.aspx?CTT=1

    But note this article: http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/outlook-help/introduction-to-outlook-data-files-pst-and-ost-HA010354876.aspx?CTT=3

    specifically the statement " Warning   Do not access an Outlook Data File (.pst) from a network share or another computer, because it increases the possibility of data loss."

    I'd agree strongly with this warning. Over many years of supporting many thousands of Outlook users, PST files on network shares is very discouraged, due to poor performance (to the user), performance impacts on the server disk volumes (generating performance issues for other users), and the increased potential for PST file corruption.
    It's a lot like using MSAccess MDB files over network shares - discouraged, for good reason.

    Don

     
  • Sunday, July 15, 2012 6:31 AM
     
     
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    >I'd agree strongly with this warning. Over many years of supporting many thousands of Outlook users, PST files on network shares is very discouraged, due to poor performance (to the user), performance impacts on the server disk volumes (generating performance issues for other users), and the increased potential for PST file corruption.

    I am very impressed by the number of people that provide advice about environments they know nothing about.  I am running a number of virtual machines on a Windows 7 ultimate x64 box and want to move everything to a folder that can be accessed by the real machine.  Now do you still think it is a bad idea to have the pst files in a folder that is on the host machine?

    Please forgive me for being blunt about this but if someone asks a question about how to do something it is very helpful to anwser ti (as you did) without making snide remarks about doing it unless you first ask why.

    http://www.saberman.com

     
  • Sunday, July 15, 2012 6:57 AM
     
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    :)  blunt is ok with me, and snide was not intended

    the assumption about your environment came from your mention of "network drive" - I assumed a different machine was hosting your network drive

    I think I understand your goal, it's a fairly common one, just that the PSTprovider isn't usually robust enough to do it well over a typical client-server networking setup, hence generic advice/warning.

    you may find it works very well for you, I expect it will come down to your setup and the disk/networking resources available.
    it may be fine forever, or degrade if you adjust your hypervisor or add extra workloads.
    as with most things, YMMV, and I hope it works out ok for you!

    Don