The PST files, also known as Personal Storage Table files, are one of the best things developed by Microsoft to remove the shortage of storage options. The primary objective of the PST files is to allow the users to store different types of mailbox items from the server to the system. In other words, the connection between PST files and hardware components of the system is so high that one issue can cause severe corruption.
But if you’re using the PST files for the first time, you should know about both the benefits and drawbacks. This way, even if you face PST file corruption, you will be able to take necessary precautions as soon as possible to prevent permanent data loss. When the PST files are corrupted, you won’t be able to send or receive emails. Do you know what you need to do in such a situation? Make sure you read this article to the end to know more.
What are PST Files?
The Outlook Data Files or Personal Storage Table files can be created by the users through the MS Outlook application to copy or move the attachments and mailbox items from the server to your system. It doesn’t matter where you store the PST files; as long as the hardware is capable of handling the operations, you don’t need to worry about a thing. As per Tech Target, hardware failure is one of the most common causes of PST file corruption.
How Much Data Items Can You Store in the PST Data Files?
If you’re using MS Outlook 2002 or earlier, the size limitation of the PST files is 2GB. However, MS developers understood the size limitation problems of the PST files and upgraded the size to 20GB for MS Outlook 2003 and 2007. Make sure you don’t tamper with the default configuration.
However, just because the size limitation is 20GB doesn’t mean you can store data items as closely as possible to the size limit. It’s always advised to leave a couple of gigabytes as spare storage. Consider creating new PST files if you require more size to store the mailbox items. Remember that larger PST files are more prone to corruption as well as permanent data loss. If you want to repair the corrupted outlook data files, make sure you use the DataNumen PST recovery tool. This tool will help you fix the corruption and retrieve the lost data items.
If you want to use Outlook Data Files to archive old emails and attachments, make sure you compress them after copying the old data items.
What are the Drawbacks of the PST Files?
There are various reasons why you should avoid using PST files. We are discussing the drawbacks of PST files not to discourage you from leveraging its benefits but to educate you regarding the issues.
Remote Access
Once you move the emails and attachments from the server to the PST files, they won’t be available on the server again. Therefore, users cannot use remote access applications to gain access to emails and attachments. If you want to access the same emails and attachments in the PST files, you need to create an MS Outlook account. You should consider using a small USB drive as it will prove beneficial in this situation. However, this process is not as convenient as leaving the emails and attachments on the server.
You Can Face Problems in the Professional World
Depending on how many emails and other mailbox items you store, the size of the PST files can expand rapidly and take up a lot of space on the hard drive. This will make the IT guys work more closely to solve the sizing problems. Not to mention, they might also need to purchase more disk space to store the PST data files effectively.
Apart from that, many Records Management Departments and Corporate Legal Departments don’t like to be dependent on the PST files as they allow the end-users to bypass or ignore the destruction policies and corporate documents easily.
Corporate Information Security Teams also don’t like to implement PST files for their system. This is because if the law even asks them to recover the old data items for a subpoena or lawsuit, the PST files will take so much effort and cost for the data recovery.
Brain Performance and System
Remember that the more email items, attachments, and mailbox items you have, the more data items you and your system will need to keep track of. This process might prove extremely challenging.
As more attachments and emails are getting indexed by the Windows Search option, the index will also become larger, and your searches will take much longer.
Conclusion
This is what you need to know about MS Outlook data files. Remember that Outlook data file corruption is pretty standard, and if you’re facing such a situation, you don’t need to worry. Just visit our website and download the PST recovery tool as soon as possible.