How to Avoid Outlook PST Corruption

“Every coin has two sides” – and this proverb suits Outlook PST file as well. One side where Outlook PST files are repository of your Outlook data on your personal computers, on the other side they can easily get corrupt. Since PST corruption causes inaccessibility of your precious emails and other Outlook data saved on it, thus it is suggested to avoid PST corruption. By observing simple precautionary measures, you can easily avoid the corruption of your PST file.

Below mentioned are top 5 precautions that you must observe in order to avoid PST corruption:

1. Avoid having large sized PST files: Oversized Outlook PST file is one of the biggest reasons for its corruption. Outlook 2002 and later support PST file size up to 2GB and exceeding this limit corrupts the PST file. Whereas, latest Outlook versions i.e. Outlook 2003 to 2007 support 20GB, but their PST files start behaving abnormally as soon as they reach 10GB. Therefore, it is recommended to not exceed these predefined size limits of your Outlook PST files. Outlook 2003-2007 support opening of several PST files together on its left pane. Therefore, you can move your emails to different PST files, and reduce the burden on single PST file.

2. Never work on big volume of emails together: Outlook halts when you work on large number of emails at one time. After this halt you have to stop Outlook abruptly, that can very likely corrupt your PST file. It is seen that if you work in a big batch of emails together, then chances of Outlook halt are high. Therefore, when you are trying to move, copy, select, or deleted large number of emails like 10,000, then it is better to make batches of 1,000 emails and then operate on them.

3. Do not exit Outlook abnormally: Quitting Outlook abnormally such as without giving command to exit Outlook before shutting down your system corrupts Outlook PST file. Whenever you are shutting down your system, check whether your Outlook is running or not, if it is running them wait for the process to get completed. After that give proper command to exit Outlook.

4. Never save your PST file on server or network drive: Outlook PST files designed in a way that they should be stored on a computer not any server or network drive. If you save then in network drive or server, then they will get corrupt very frequently.

5. Maintain regular backup of your Outlook PST file: One of the best ways to overcome PST corruption and data loss is backup. Therefore, it is recommended to maintain a periodic backup of your Outlook PST files.

In this way by observing all aforementioned precautions you can avoid Outlook PST corruption. However, if per change you come across PST file corruption, then using an efficient Outlook PST recovery software is recommended. Professional PST recovery tool repairs your Outlook PST file and recovers all your precious data.

Author Bio: I am Grace Smith, working as an IT consultant. I am using Microsoft Outlook and always interested in learning and sharing new tips and tricks related to this application. I usually write on tips to recover corrupt Outlook PST file, managing a large pst file, creating email backup for Outlook and more.