Question : Archiving Exchange messages in PST files

Hello to all!

I want to archive messages from mailboxes in an Exchange 2003 Server. To archive messages, I'm going to use Exmerge, that removes the messages from the mailbox and saves it to the PST file.

I've install Microsoft Outlook 2003 in the server (exmerge needs it to save do the PST), but if the archiving session makes the PST grows bigger than 2 GB, it gets corrupted.

How can I avoid this and use a bigger PST without the risk of corruption?

Or

Is there any other free solution to archive messages from mailboxes in Exchange 2003?

Thanks

Answer : Archiving Exchange messages in PST files

You're seeing this problem because Exmerge uses the ANSI PST format, rather than the newer Unicode format. The ANSI format has an upper file size limit of about 2GB, and then, as you state, corruption occurs. Using Exmerge, there is no work around this issue. If, however, you archive using Outlook 2003's Archive feature, you can save to newer Unicode files, which will grow ten times larger to 20GB.

However, I would strongly advise you against using Exmerge or any form of PST file for archiving. I wrote an article a while ago which explains why you should avoid this like the plague: http://www.experts-exchange.com/articles/Software/Server_Software/Email_Servers/Exchange/Why-you-shouldn't-use-PST-files.html.

What are your reasons for doing this? To save space on the Exchange Server? Because you've hit your mailbox database limit? You should use a commercial archiving solution (such as Symantec Enterprise Vault or GFI MailArchiver, as discussed in the article) or find some other solution to your issue, rather than use PST files for archiving.

>> I've install Microsoft Outlook 2003 in the server

Finally, installing Outlook on an Exchange 2003 Server is NOT supported and could cause you potential issues. Please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/266418.

-Matt