[vovillamor]

I've gotten good at moving and backing up my Outlool .pst file.

I've recently started using MSN and Outlook Connector to synchronize Outlook and MSN (while still synchronizing my Pocket PC with Outlook).
I'm using my MSN account as my primary e-mail account in Outlook.

The big change here is that instead of using the .pst file to store Outlook data, Outlook Connector uses .ost files (Offline storage files).

Does anyone have any comments about backing up .ost files?

I've heard of horror stories of Outlook Connector users losing their Outlook data after a crash because their .ost file has become "orphaned". It appears that Outlook has no option to open .ost date files, just .pst files.
My only recourse at this time is to copy all my Outlook calendar, contacts, and tasks data from the primary account (stored in a .ost file) into an external .pst data file. I'm thinking that there must be an easier way to manage .ost data files.

[vovillamor]

I've gotten good at moving and backing up my Outlool .pst file.

I've recently started using MSN and Outlook Connector to synchronize Outlook and MSN (while still synchronizing my Pocket PC with Outlook).
I'm using my MSN account as my primary e-mail account in Outlook.

The big change here is that instead of using the .pst file to store Outlook data, Outlook Connector uses .ost files (Offline storage files).

Does anyone have any comments about backing up .ost files?

I've heard of horror stories of Outlook Connector users losing their Outlook data after a crash because their .ost file has become "orphaned". It appears that Outlook has no option to open .ost date files, just .pst files.
My only recourse at this time is to copy all my Outlook calendar, contacts, and tasks data from the primary account (stored in a .ost file) into an external .pst data file. I'm thinking that there must be an easier way to manage .ost data files.

[JohnJohn]

I use a Outlook on a laptop ost of the time. I would like to be able to share the .pst file. Park it on my laptop, then "share" the folder with my desktop, so while at home I use it on my larger display. Any ideas on how sharing the .pst file?

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by JohnJohn

I would like to be able to share the .pst file. Park it on my laptop, then "share" the folder with my desktop, so while at home I use it on my larger display. Any ideas on how sharing the .pst file?

Sure, just use a modified version of my steps above:

1) Share the folder out that has your PST (you may wish to move it to your My Documents first)
2) Delete the PST on your deskop
3) Open Outlook and it will ask you to locate the PST
4) Point it at the PST on your laptop

[John Schaefer]

Having two computers using the same PST file at once seems like a recipe for problems to me. Remember that it's a single file. What happens if one computer is writing to the file while the other tries to read it? Or write to it, for that matter. Two simultaneous writes to the same file may trash it, or even cause problems for the hard drive it's on.

Much safer to run separate instances of Outlook with separate PSTs, then sync them periodically. Note from an earlier post here that the sync process will complain and halt itself safely if another user or process not controllable by the sync process has one of the target files open for any reason. That's good behavior. Point two independent instances of Outlook at the same PST, and you don't have that protection.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by John Schaefer

Having two computers using the same PST file at once seems like a recipe for problems to me.

It's perfectly safe because only one instance of Outlook can access the PST at a time. So if you have your laptop open and it's accessing the PST and then you open Outlook on your desktop, it will just give you an error about not being able to open the file. When you shut down Outlook on the laptop, it frees up the file and Outlook on the desktop can access it again. I did it this way for years and it works 100% of the time, no corruption issues or anything strange that I noticed.

That said, it's still a bit barbaric compared to hosted Exchange - that's the real way to do multi-device email. ;-)

[mhollinger]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

... If you spend a great deal of your time in Outlook, you'll want to protect that PST file from data loss. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't make this easy for you - most of us, if we're running data backup software of some kind, will be backing up our My Documents folder, and not much else.

In case you use Microsoft Offline Folder Synchronization as part of your backup strategy, please be aware that PST (or OST) files cannot be synchronized.

[bnycastro]

thanks for this tip... until now i was only backing up my contacts [using export to file] :roll: this one is very useful to outlook dependents like me.

[Down8]

Originally Posted by Gator5000e

Actually, Microsoft has Outlook 2003 Personal Folders Backup, an Add-in program that will back up your PST file at regular intervals. It integrates directly into Outlook itself. You can back up your PST file to a separate drive and location, like an external drive. You can also set how often it backs up. This works well for me. Here is the link.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Hope this helps someone.

Seconded!

This keeps a 2nd copy of outlook.pst and archive.pst in My Docs, which is on a diff partition (and will be an entirely diff drive once my new build is completed).

-bZj