[Albert Lionheart]

I asked this in an earlier thread which I have since closed - but nobody ventured an answer.
I have an Outlook database which causes the app to crash if the database grows to be more that 2 Gb (the exact size was somewhere near 2,0032,000)
Anyone come across this before and if so, know of a fix please?

[tomrca]

see if there is any info
here or here

seen this

"That means you can run the system file checker to repair either Outlook Express and Internet Explorer."

here

[Albert Lionheart]

Thanks Tom - I will keep those for future reference.
I have now at least got access to the contents of the database but would still like to know if there is a tweak to increase the size of the database over the 2Gb mark.
Anyone?

[tomrca]

http://www.warp2search.net/internet-...de-s15016.html
is there any warning message?

[Albert Lionheart]

Nope - it just refused to reopen. And of course the only app to open the database is Outlook so you are stuffed. Totally. Unless you know about the tools to fix it.

[tomrca]

whats the chances for reinstalling outlook from xp disk then updating it

[Albert Lionheart]

The problem is the database. I found with this problem (over the last two days) the reinstalling the software makes no difference as it is the size of the database which stops the program running.
BTW - Outlook is part of MS Office - it is Outlook Express that is part of windows.
My Outlook Express datafile on another PC is 3.2Gb so clearly not burdened with the same problem.

[tomrca]

hi albert. i have found this site with masses of outlook info, might be worth looking at it. that is if you haven't already been there. HERE

[Albert Lionheart]

Thanks Tom - there is an enormous amount of stuff on there and I have not yet found any reference to the max size of the database - but will keep looking.
I have just had another go at the problem and think the best bet is to try an upgrade of Outlook to 2003 (plus all the other MS Office bits that go with it). Either that or use Outlook Express as on this particular machine there is no use made of all the Outlook bells and whistles. The only difference I can see in the mail handler that matters to us is that in Outlook you can set a rule to file sent & received messages; in OE you can only set the rule to file incoming messages. Oh well.

A really helpful poster on the other place has come up with this pretty definitive answer to this question:

AlbertLionheart - you have it right. amazing. that is a good memory. 2003 and 2007 can both be up to 20GB. I personally do not recommend anyone to have a file this large. It is "pack-rattish" to have to keep that much email stored up. It would take forever to find anything and if you use the Vista Indexing then it would run and run and run and probably get tired. I just have my Outlook Autoarchive. I cannot stand slow performance when it comes to an application that I always have open. It would drive me crazy.
anyways here is the info:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830336/en-us

SUMMARY
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 have both a different format and a larger overall size limit for the personal folders (.pst) file than the .pst files that are in the earlier versions of Microsoft Outlook. In Outlook 2002 and earlier, the .pst files are in the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) format, and the overall size has a limit of 2 gigabytes (GB).

By default, .pst files are in the Unicode format in Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2003. Additionally, the overall size of the .pst files has a limit that is more than the 2-GB limit that is imposed by the ANSI .pst files. By default, the limit for a Unicode .pst file in Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2003 is configured to be 20 GB. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: