PST files are responsible for storing Outlook settings and other personal information for the users, therefore, they can go a bit heavy on data sometimes. It is necessary to compress the files in order to free the space on the hard drive of the computer. Lets find out how to go about the process.
Microsoft Outlook allows users to manage the emails received by them in an orderly fashion. Emails are the most widely used form of communication used on the web and is used to exchange a lot information on a daily basis. Therefore, to guarantee a secure and efficient access to one’s emails and information stored in them is of utmost importance. The Outlook email management client also allows users to create notes, calender entries, tasks, address books and maintain a journal, apart from offering email management features. Now, Outlook is primarily used to manage the flow of emails within an organisation. All the emails and related information are servers, which can be later used to recover Outlook if something goes wrong. However, if the Outlook client is being run independent of a server, that is, being run as a stand-alone client, all the data is stored on the hard disk drive of the local computer. As users have a tendency to use multiple OST and PST files, they marginally fill the space on hard disk. Even deleting data from PST files does not help, as the data which is deleted in stored in the Deleted Items folder, which is a part of the respective PST file, therefore, users need to manually go to the Deleted Items folder and delete the discarded items. However, users need to make sure that they don’t hard delete any file which can be later used to recover Outlook if it crashes. After deleting the files from the Deleted Items folder, users will then have to compact the PST file in order to free space on the hard disk. Users should keep it in mind that the compacting process does not remove all the free space from the PST, because it is programed to leave at least 14 KB or 4 percent of the file size before it gets compacted. Microsoft has set a few requisites that make a PST file eligible for the compacting process. Firstly, the PST must be larger than 16 KB and secondly, it should have 16 KBs of free space. Now, compaction can be done manually or automatically. For automatic compaction, Outlook must be running on the background and no other CPU related process such as copying or file downloading should not be taking place. For manually compacting PST file, visit the ‘File’ menu on Microsoft Outlook and click on Data File Management. Now, select the PST or Personal Folder users want to compact and click on ‘Settings’. When a new window opens, click on the ‘General Tab’ and click on ‘Compact Now’. Click on ‘OK’ and ‘Close’ to exit the application. If you are using Microsoft Outlook 2010, click on the ‘File’ menu located on the main ribbon and select ‘Info’. Then, access the ‘Account Settings’ tab and then click on ‘Account Settings’ again. Then, after selecting the ‘Data Files’ tab, click on ‘Personal Folder’ and click on ‘Settings’. After that, access the ‘General’ tab and click ‘Compact Now’. However, if something goes wrong with client, users can always use the DataNumen Outlook Repair tool from DataNumen in order to recover Outlook.