Default Location of pst files.

kitfit1 · 24 Sep 2009 at 23:05

I've just installed Office 2007, and am starting to use Outlook. For the last 5 years or so i've been using Thunderbird. As many will know, you can change the default location of your e-mails in Thunderbird. I store them on my data drive, so that when i reinstall windows i don't loose my e-mails.

I want to do the same thing with Outlook, but can't for the life of me figure how to do it. There seems to be no option to change the path of the storage folder. Using Win7 by the way.

I've done a google search on this, but most of the results are next to useless.

Any definitive pointers would be well apreciated.

OCdude · 24 Sep 2009 at 23:10

Hmm i remember doing this a while back (i'm assuming it's for a POP account?)

The way I did it, was to setup the account and download some email, so the initial PST is created.

Close Outlook and locate that PST, then move it to the desired location.

Re-open Outlook and it'll complain that it can't open your personal folders file (or something similar).

Browse to the newly-moved file.

et voilá ?

kitfit1 · 25 Sep 2009 at 09:09

Thanks, will give that a try tonight.

OCdude · 26 Sep 2009 at 19:17

Any joy?

Nitemare1566 · 26 Sep 2009 at 19:24

pst file location

***First enable view hidden folders option***

Usually c:\user\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook

Depends on OP system but all fairly similar path

Hope this help?

Nitemare

kitfit1 · 26 Sep 2009 at 20:23

Yes, im sorry, i should have replied last night (out on the booze).

Thanks oc dude, works 100%. I can't imagine though why MS makes this such a hassle. Do they not think that we may want to keep important e-mails, because i know i do.

CaptainCrash · 26 Sep 2009 at 20:41

kitfit1 said:
Thanks oc dude, works 100%. I can't imagine though why MS makes this such a hassle. Do they not think that we may want to keep important e-mails, because i know i do.

Don't forget you'll also need to specify a new location for any archive.pst files if you use them, as they'll stay where they are unless you do so, and will be lost in the event of a reformat. Ask me how I originally found this out... (actually, don't)....

kitfit1 · 26 Sep 2009 at 20:48

CaptainCrash said:
Don't forget you'll also need to specify a new location for any archive.pst files if you use them, as they'll stay where they are unless you do so, and will be lost in the event of a reformat. Ask me how I originally found this out... (actually, don't)....

C'mon then spill the beans

I take it that all the additional folders i have created have moved as well ? So that when i reformat they will still be on my data drive ? If that's the case then that's all i need to happen.

OCdude · 26 Sep 2009 at 22:12

The easiest way to see where all your PSTs are is to go to File > Data file management. There, it will list all of 'em.

If you manually add others, part of that process will be "where do you want to save the PST" so there's not much chance of you losing them

FYI: the default location for PSTs is: %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook (if you're on XP)

or

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook (if you're on Vista/Win7)

There's also an addon called PFBackup (Google it) that can can be set to backup (copies) your PSTs to another location. Quite handy I guess...

CaptainCrash · 27 Sep 2009 at 02:33

kitfit1 said:
C'mon then spill the beans

I... errrm, reformatted a business colleague's PC and lost some important stuff in an archive.pst file - he'd relocated the primary outlook.pst file to a different partition, but he had auto-archiving switched on without specifying an alternative location for the data store (it automatically creates an archive.pst in the default location unless you specifically tell it otherwise).

My helpful suggestion that it would teach him to do proper backups in future just seemed to make things worse, and he still moans about it to this day, several years later...

kitfit1 said:
I take it that all the additional folders i have created have moved as well ? So that when i reformat they will still be on my data drive ? If that's the case then that's all i need to happen.

If your additional folders are under a single "Personal Folders" heirarchy, they'll all be in the one outlook.pst file so unless you've created others (you'd know if you had), that's all you have to worry about. And be careful if you're using auto-archiving...