Outlook PST Backup

crazychrono100

Do you guys know of any cost effective way of backing up PST files?

Find more posts tagged with

Save $250 on 2025 certification boot camps from Infosec!

Book now with code EOY2025

Button

Comments

RobertKaucher

crazychrono100 wrote: »

Do you guys know of any cost effective way of backing up PST files?

More background information? How many and what size are they?

Cobian Backup has worked very well for me in the past...

JockVSJock

crazychrono100 wrote: »

Do you guys know of any cost effective way of backing up PST files?

Ya, a little more info would be helpful.

I'm gonna say, your having some issues with them. If this is a space issue on your servers, this is what we do where I currently work.

We do not backup .pst files. The reason, is that most of them take up too much space and delay the backup process.

Even Microsoft recommends not using .pst files for storage:

Personal folder files are unsupported over a LAN or over a WAN link

Here is a URL that we pass out to our Desktop Support staff on .pst files:

Network Stored PST files ... don't do it! - Ask the Performance Team - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

RobertKaucher

JockVSJock wrote: »

We do not backup .pst files. The reason, is that most of them take up too much space and delay the backup process.

Even Microsoft recommends not using .pst files for storage:

Personal folder files are unsupported over a LAN or over a WAN link

Here is a URL that we pass out to our Desktop Support staff on .pst files:

Network Stored PST files ... don't do it! - Ask the Performance Team - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Amen!
That's why I suggest the use of Cobian. I used to just do it to a USB external HDD and warned the users that I would make my best effort but gave no guarantees about them being restored.

crazychrono100

Where I work our user are given 350mb limit on their inbox so they either have to delete them or archive them. Right now we are not backing up any of the user email. So basically I'm looking for suggestions on how you guys are backing up emails. BTW we using exchange server.

RobertKaucher

Too many people think their 5 year old email is critical to the operation of the company. If that is true, then there needs to be an email retention policy and company wide email archive managed by IT. If it is not true, then these do not need to be backed up and best effort should be IT's policy.

If you are hearing stories about "customer x" who disputed "contract y" and we would have been up a creek if the project manager hadn't had an email from 2 years ago. Then you should consider an archiving solution. But first determine if this is true. What does "up a creek" really mean? Users tend to be hyperbolic when it comes to their junk. I would also say that this needs to be discussed with the company's lawyer before a retention policy is put into place. If you are strictly worried about just PSTs and not actually backing up Exchange mailboxes something like Cobian is fine. If you are asking about backing up Exchange mailboxes this is another story... Hopefully some of the Exchange guru's would have something to say.

it_consultant

350 MB is WAY to low. What is the motivation behind this?

N2IT

JockVSJock wrote: »

Ya, a little more info would be helpful.

I'm gonna say, your having some issues with them. If this is a space issue on your servers, this is what we do where I currently work.

We do not backup .pst files. The reason, is that most of them take up too much space and delay the backup process.

Even Microsoft recommends not using .pst files for storage:

Personal folder files are unsupported over a LAN or over a WAN link

Here is a URL that we pass out to our Desktop Support staff on .pst files:

Network Stored PST files ... don't do it! - Ask the Performance Team - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

I haven't worked in an environment yet who allows PST files. They are storage hogs and cause all sorts of funky problems.

They are almost as bad a syncronized my documents

it_consultant

Yeah, I have had PSTs just randomly go bad, then I have to explain that having a PST is like swimming without a lifeguard. Most of the time you will be OK, but then there is that chance it will all go bad...

manny355

i'd say to just move the location of the pst file to either the desktop...or root of c...then using an external drive...either use the backup software incuded with it or have the user periodically copy the folder from the internal drive to the external drive...

tomahawkeer

Store it locally, use xcopy via a batch file run nightly (or what ever time frame you chose) to backup to a different drive / device.