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Backing up Outlook 2010 email.


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I recently had a major glitch on one of my work systems and did a system restore. It ruined my outlook PST files. For future reference is (file/options/advanced/export) good enough to do backups with or should I get one of those programs that "specializes" in backing up Outlook information?

Thanks,

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What's wrong with just backing up the actual PST file? What is so specialized about making a copy of a file ending in .pst from one location to the other?

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Are you talking about backing up an Outlook file while Outlook is running, or while Outlook is shut down? If Outlook is shut down you should have no trouble copying the .pst file. If you want to have a *really* good backup, you should also copy:

- Email signature files

- The Outlook nicknames file (.n2k file). This only applies to Outlook versions prior to 2010 so in your case don't worry

..they're in slightly different locations depending on your version of Windows.

If you're talking about backing up open .pst files, that's a bit trickier. You can't copy open .pst files, which is why you would use one of those "backup outlook" addons or do an export from Outlook. But that said, & this isn't the correct way to do this: I haven't had issues backing up the .PST file with a program that does VSS (e.g. Cobian Backup or similar). Just make sure to run scanpst.exe & also "compact" the outlook file via the Mail control panel program so you clear out any potential errors in the file. Or just import the old .pst file into a new one if you're worried about it.

Speaking of which, did you already try scanpst.exe & compacting your restored .pst files? Or just try to import the old .pst data into a new .pst?

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He could crate a script which shuts outlook down and. Backs the pst file and open it back up.

I know syncback the paid version can backup locked pst files.

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He could crate a script which shuts outlook down and. Backs the PST file and open it back up.

I know sync back the paid version can backup locked PST files.

To those who say to just copy the PST files. I have tried that many times but for some reason after I move them back and open OUTLOOK everything current as of the time I copied the file is there but when OUTLOOK tried to pop etc... it says it cannot open the PST file. This happens EVERY time.

I have been able to recover by creating a dummy PST file, tell OUTLOOK to use the dummy file for that account for now. Restart OUTLOOK and then tell OUTLOOK to use the PST file BACK to the old file that is still listed. It seems to fix the file somehow. The export and import feature works great every time but is laborious as I have MANY accounts. and I was hoping there was a program to do the backup that either knows how to back them up properly or at least will not corrupt the files when copying them back an forth.

Great ideas though but I have tried them. Any other thoughts or programs you know of?

Thanks,

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To those who say to just copy the PST files. I have tried that many times but for some reason after I move them back and open OUTLOOK everything current as of the time I copied the file is there but when OUTLOOK tried to pop etc... it says it cannot open the PST file. This happens EVERY time.

What do you mean by pop? So you are saying when it tries to connect to a pop3 server it says it can't open the PST file? The first part makes sense. The PST file will only have what was there when it's copied, which is why you back it up often. It's the last part of that sentence that has me confused.

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I get about 500 emails a day and have large .PST files. They were always getting corrupted somehow, no matter what I did. So I added a gmail account to Outlook and pay $5/year for 25gigs+ of space there. Every few months I drag my archived messages from my .PST file to the Gmail account. It gives me the added bonus of being able to access my messages anywhere when I travel.

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What do you mean by pop? So you are saying when it tries to connect to a pop3 server it says it can't open the PST file? The first part makes sense. The PST file will only have what was there when it's copied, which is why you back it up often. It's the last part of that sentence that has me confused.

Sorry if I used the wrong terminology. Not sure what it would be called but yes, after copying the PST files back the first time OUTLOOK tries to access the files to get email, access the mail server etc..., I get the error that the PST file cannot be accessed. And this goes for all of the ones I restored.

I get about 500 emails a day and have large .PST files. They were always getting corrupted somehow, no matter what I did. So I added a gmail account to Outlook and pay $5/year for 25gigs+ of space there. Every few months I drag my archived messages from my .PST file to the Gmail account. It gives me the added bonus of being able to access my messages anywhere when I travel.

I have GMail account besides my work account and I am not worried about getting those if they wont update through OUTLOOK.

Oned more point. I use Acronis True Imahe Home 2012 to do my whole system backups and they have modules in it such as email backups but every time I try that it gets 75% done and stops. No errors or anything it just stopps. I could sit there for hours and it will do nothing,. I gave up on that.

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Sorry if I used the wrong terminology. Not sure what it would be called but yes, after copying the PST files back the first time OUTLOOK tries to access the files to get email, access the mail server etc..., I get the error that the PST file cannot be accessed. And this goes for all of the ones I restored.

I have GMail account besides my work account and I am not worried about getting those if they wont update through OUTLOOK.

Oned more point. I use Acronis True Imahe Home 2012 to do my whole system backups and they have modules in it such as email backups but every time I try that it gets 75% done and stops. No errors or anything it just stopps. I could sit there for hours and it will do nothing,. I gave up on that.

Is the pst file somehow being marked as read only on the way back? Check to see if the pst is read only.

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Is the pst file somehow being marked as read only on the way back? Check to see if the pst is read only.

Nope looks good. I ran that Microsoft PST file fixer also and it found no errors.

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To those who say to just copy the PST files. I have tried that many times but for some reason after I move them back and open OUTLOOK everything current as of the time I copied the file is there but when OUTLOOK tried to pop etc... it says it cannot open the PST file. This happens EVERY time.

I have been able to recover by creating a dummy PST file, tell OUTLOOK to use the dummy file for that account for now. Restart OUTLOOK and then tell OUTLOOK to use the PST file BACK to the old file that is still listed.

So... copying/restoring does work for you? Are you just saying it's a PITA, even though it works?

But yeah, sometimes Outlook doesn't take the file on the first try. What I end up doing is similar to your dummy file approach: Delete/rename all the old .pst files that are leftover in the old locations, start up Outook. Outlook will complain that it can't find the .pst files but will create new ones in the same locations. Let it do that. But before it starts downloading emails & stuff just exit Outlook. Now feel free to copy your restored .pst files on top of the new .pst files Outlook created. When you start up Outlook again everything is back the way it was.

Lately though, I just let Outlook create the new .pst files & then import all the old data from the old .pst files.. I've been doing this for clients when setting them up on new machines without any issues.

One thing though: If you're accessing your email via POP, Outlook does normally re-download everything. Yes, this sucks.. I'm not sure if there's a good way around it unless you can change a setting on your email provider's webmail side. e.g. Gmail can limit POP email downloads, instead of from 2005 or whatever, change it to just emails starting "today" & Outlook only re-downloads emails marked with "today's" date.

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So... copying/restoring does work for you? Are you just saying it's a PITA, even though it works?

<snip>

I worked it out. MS Sync Toy backs the files up in a manner that does not corrupt the files. The cool thing about Sync Toy is I can choose to add or exclude any sub folder of the folder I wan to to sync so I just choose my whole user folder, exclude crap like appdata etc.... and backup my unexpendables and constantly changing files. Then each night just do a quick sync.

Works great!

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