MjM Data Recovery Ltd can recover 99% of the data from this type of problem. Due to the size of the file, we will either require the original hard disk that the file was stored on, or a copy of it on DVD-R/RAM or another hard-disk. The file will be returned on DVD.

Error Messages produced by Outlook include;

• Properties for this information service must be configured prior to use, File access is denied.
• You do not have the permissions required to access the file
• Errors in background synchronization

Methods of reducing oversize files
There are two ways of minimizing the risk of oversize files happening again in the future.

Archive
Firstly, create a new pst file or an archive, and set the archive to run at least weekly and archive items at a suitable interval, i.e. 3 Months.
This does not stop the problem, but only puts it off, the reason is that if the archive.pst file exceeds the 2GB limit, then the same problem occurs when you need to access the archived information. The problem is that, unless the size of the archive is monitored, the archive itself may go over the 2GB limit, and become inaccessible.

Multiple PST files
This is probably the best solution. Create new PST files for different projects, groups, folders, etc. and name them accordingly. Set up several archive files so that each pst file or its folders, has its own archive, and set the archive flags accordingly, you can set up separate contacts, appointments, notes etc. within each personal folder. Also, set up rules so that received mail is moved (not copied) to the appropriate folder upon receipt from within the in box. Whilst this doesn't guarantee that the files will not go over the 2 GB limit, it does significantly reduce the probability of it happening.

Setting up Archives
First of all, expand the Outlook folder so that you can see the folders, contacts, etc. Right-Click on the folder you wish to archive (i.e. in box) and select Properties from the drop-down menu. In the dialog box that appears, select Auto Archive (or Archive). Click in the box 'Clean out items after' and select a suitable period (i.e. 3 Months). Then select the file to save to; note that you can create an independent archive file for each folder, this is useful if some folders get more messages than others. The last but most important step is to make sure that Auto-archiving is switched on. Click on the Tools menu and select Options. From the dialog box select the 'Other' tab and click on the Auto-archive Button, click in the box 'Auto-Archive every' so that it is ticked, and select the number of days to Auto-archive. Once a week should be sufficient, but if you are receiving large amounts of e-mails or large attachments, then reducing the number of days will result in faster archiving. Select a file name for the archive by clicking the browse button - choose a name similar to the main PST file, i.e. for a file named project.pst you could use Project-Archive.pst.

Using an archive file
OK, so you have set up your archives, and you need to access an e-mail that was sent 6-months ago. Click on the file menu, and select open> Personal Folders File - Browse to the archive file, and open it. A new PST folder will appear in your list containing all of the archived items. Once you have found the e-mail, you can close the archive by right-clicking on the personal folder and select close.