Based on Outlook .pst file configuration, it can be categorized into ANSI (American National Standards Institute) format and Unicode (Uniform Character Encoding) format. Both of these formats have different structure and size limit. Basically earlier versions of Outlook were configured with the ANSI format (upto Outlook 2002) and the size limit for .pst file was 2 GB i.e. PST file could hold only data upto 2 GB. If the .pst file size gets increased more than 2 GB then it may lead to corruption in .pst file which may further results in loss of Outlook data.
With the continuous flow of information and increased communication needs, introduction of new Outlook versions was required with enhanced size capabilities. After Outlook 2002, new versions like Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 introduced. All these later versions are based on Unicode format which allows much larger PST file size.
Despite increased size of Outlook .pst file; there may be other factors which may lead corruption in Outlook .pst file. However, Outlook is a reliable application and is full of useful features. With some precautionary steps you can save your Outlook .pst file. Following are some of the methods which could help in saving your .pst file from corruption:
Methods to prevent Outlook .pst file corruption:A. Archive Outlook Data file
B. Compact .pst file
C. Split Outlook .pst file
A. Archive Outlook Data file: Archiving includes moving your rarely used or old data items to separate location. This helps in making the size of the .pst file small. Archiving can be done both manually and automatically. However practically, it does not create so much difference in the .pst size.
B. Compact .pst file: Compacting is an inbuilt feature in Outlook and can be accessed from Outlook Settings → 'Compact Now' option. Compacting .pst file helps in reducing the size of .pst file upto some limit.
C. Split Outlook .pst file: Microsoft Outlook provides the PST2GB utility which reduces the size of the .pst file by truncating some of its data. So by using this utility the chances of losing the .pst file data gets very high. Splitting the .pst file into smaller parts helps in reducing the size of the file.
Sometimes Outlook users even do not know that .pst file has a 2 GB size limitation and they face the situation of .pst corruption. In that case, splitting a large .pst file would be very beneficial, before letting the file to exceed its size limit. The free utility provided by Microsoft does not help and even if it does, it might truncate the useful data. There are other PST Splitter tools which can splits single as well as multiple .pst files. Stellar Outlook
PST File Splitter is specially designed to save .pst file from any kind of damage due to 2GB .pst file limitation. It has the capability to
Split PST file according to date, Email ID, size and folder and provides you details of each operation.
