Introduction and policy
Everyone is assigned a section of space on a company file-server for email archiving. This space is known as the X: drive and is specific/private to you only.
In order to be consistent and maintain a reliable structure, the email archiving policy requires that you archive all historical email by year only. This is done by creating a separate “PST” file for each year. This includes both received and sent items.
If in the event that you do not have access to the X: drive, you will be required to make a copy of the “PST” file and then submit it to the information systems department.
Following the steps below will ensure that all prior year’s email is stored according to a common structure, easily retrievable by management in the event that you are not available.
Note: The steps below only ensure the consistency and integrity of prior year’s correspondence and NOT the current year. Please make sure that you take the necessary steps to back up your current years email.
What is a “PST” file?
A ”PST” file is a single file and is the standard file format that Microsoft Outlook stores all email, calendar, tasks, and other correspondence in. ”PST” refers to the 3 letter file extension at the end of the name given to the file(example: “my email.pst”). A “PST” file is referred to as an ”Outlook Data File” in the menu system of Microsoft Outlook.
Click on the version of Microsoft Outlook you have below to guide you through the steps:
Microsoft Outlook 2010 Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Older
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Creating a “PST” file in Microsoft Outlook 2007 and older 1. Open Microsoft Outlook.
2. Click “File” as seen below:
3. Click “New” as seen below:
4. Click “Outlook Data File…” as seen below:
5. The Following screen appears:
6. Ensure the default highlighted field for “Types of storage:” is “Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst)” and then click Ok.
7. The following screen appears:
8. Change the location where you will save the “PST”. To save the “PST” file to the X: drive, click the “Save in:” drop down menu or click on the “My Computer” icon to the left and navigate to the X: drive. If the X: drive is not available, contact the information systems department.
Note: If you are on a jobsite, creating and archiving to a “PST” file on the X: drive is more than likely going to be extremely slow. It is best to create the “PST” file in another location such as “my documents” and then copy the “PST” file to the X: drive. Make sure Microsoft Outlook is closed when you perform the copy. If this is the process you wish to follow skip to Step 11.
9. Once you have navigated to the X: drive it should look like the screen below:
10. Note that the “Save in:” now displays your ”login username” followed by “on” server name\email archives’ (X:)”
11. Fill in the “File name:” section at the bottom of the screen for the year you wish to archive.
In the example below we have elected to archive for the year “2009”.
12. Click “Ok”.
13. The following screen appears:
14. Change the “Name:” field to reflect the same year as the previous screen and click “Ok”.
In this example above you will notice that we have filled in “2009”.
Note: This is the name of the “PST” file that will appear in your Microsoft Outlook structure as seen below.
15. Click “Finish”.
16. If you expand the ”2009” ”PST” file(click on the symbol), you will notice that it already contains two folders, “Deleted Items” and “Search Folders”. These are created by default and cannot be deleted. See below:
17. At this point it is optional how you store or archive email under this “PST” file. A
recommended solution would be to create new folders “Inbox” and a “Sent Items” folder in this “PST” file first as seen below:
18. To begin archiving all sent items for a particular year, simply go to your “Sent Items”
folder in your “Outlook Today” or “Personal Folders” “PST” file, highlight all sent items that correspond to the year you wish to archive, holding the left mouse button down, drag it to the “Sent Items” folder in the “PST” file for the year you are archiving. In our example, we will drag all “2009” sent items from our “Outlook Today” or “Personal Folders” “PST”
file to our newly created “Sent Items” folder in the “2009” “PST” file. See below:
19. Repeat the same steps above for all your received items in your Inbox. i.e. drag all email for the year you are archiving in your ”Outlook Today” or “Personal Folders” “PST” file to the ”Inbox” folder you just created in your new “PST” file for that year.
20. Recommendation: Because almost everyone creates sub-folders under their “Inbox”, creating those sub-folders again under the archived “PST” file and then dragging that years received items one sub-folder at a time can be extremely tedious. If you create a single sub-folder such as “Archives” or “To be archived” under your “Inbox” in the
“Outlook Today” or “ Personal Folders” “PST” file at the begging of the year, and then create your sub-folders under that single sub-folder as you progress through the year, you can simplify the process down to one simple drag at the end of each year, saving you hours of waiting. See structure below for example:
21. In the above example all you would have to do is drag the “Archives” folder into the 2009
“PST” file.
Note: Make sure you do not include email from several years as this defeats the object of archiving email by year.
Note: A potential disadvantage of doing it this way is that you would need to recreate the
“Archives” sub-folder and the sub-folders under it each year as you progress through the year. The advantage would be that you start each year with a fresh clean set of sub-
folders thus illuminating sub-folders that you don’t use anymore and that taking up space and probably hampering your email performance.
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Creating a “PST” file inMicrosoft Outlook 2010 1. Open Microsoft Outlook.
2. Click the small downward arrow on the “New Items” icon as seen below:
3. The following menu appears
4. Click “More Items”
5. The following menu appears
6. Click “Outlook Data File…”
7. The following screen appears:
8. Change the location where you will save the “PST”. To save the “PST” file to the X: drive, scroll down on the left window until you locate the X: drive which is located under the computer icon. Click on it once.
9. Note: If you are on a jobsite, creating and archiving to a “PST” file on the X: drive is more than likely going to be extremely slow. It is best to create the “PST” file in another location such as “my documents” and then copy the “PST” file to the X: drive. Make sure Microsoft Outlook is closed when you perform the copy. If this is the process you wish to follow skip to Step 12.
10. Once you have navigated to the X: drive it should look like the screen below:
11. Note that the “Save in:” now displays your”login username” followed by “on” server name\email archives’ (X:)”
12. Fill in the “File name:” section at the bottom of the screen for the year you wish to archive.
In the example below we have elected to archive for the year “2009”.
13. You will notice that the PST file now appears in your list of folders on the left of your screen. In this example you will notice that we have now have a “2009” PST file.
14. If you expand the”2009” ”PST” file(click on the symbol), you will notice that it already contains two folders, “Deleted Items” and “Search Folders”. These are created by default and cannot be deleted. See below:
15. At this point it is optional how you store or archive email under this “PST” file. A recommended solution would be to create new folders, a “Inbox” and a “Sent Items”
folder in this “PST” file first as seen below:
16. To begin archiving all sent items for a particular year, simply go to your “Sent Items”
folder in your “Outlook Today” , “Personal Folders” or “usename@whiteconst.com” “PST”
file, highlight all sent items that correspond to the year you wish to archive, holding the left mouse button down, drag it to the “Sent Items” folder in the “PST” file for the year you are archiving. In our example, we will drag all “2009” sent items from our “Outlook Today”,
“Personal Folders” or “usename@whiteconst.com” “PST” file to our newly created “Sent Items” folder in the “2009” “PST” file. See below:
17. Repeat the same steps above for all your received items in your Inbox. i.e. drag all email for the year you are archiving in your ”Outlook Today” or “Personal Folders” or
“usename@whiteconst.com” “PST” file to the ”Inbox” folder you just created in your new
“PST” file for that year.
18. Recommendation: Because almost everyone creates sub-folders under their “Inbox”, creating those sub-folders again under the archived “PST” file and then dragging that years received items one sub-folder at a time can be extremely tedious. If you create a single sub-folder such as “Archives” or “To be archived” under your “Inbox” in the
“Outlook Today” or “ Personal Folders” “PST” file at the begging of the year, and then create your sub-folders under that single sub-folder as you progress through the year, you can simplify the process down to one simple drag at the end of each year, saving you hours of waiting. See structure below for example:
19. In the above example all you would have to do is drag the “Archives” folder into the 2009
“PST” file.
Note: Make sure you do not include email from several years as this defeats the object of archiving email by year.
Note: A potential disadvantage of doing it this way is that you would need to recreate the
“Archives” sub-folder and the sub-folders under it each year as you progress through the year. The advantage would be that you start each year with a fresh clean set of sub- folders thus illuminating sub-folders that you don’t use anymore and that taking up space and probably hampering your email performance.
If you have any questions about completing this tutorial, please contact the IS Department.
