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Grand Rapids, MI | I am not sure what you are asking. Do you have multiple .pst files? Is your .pst file too big to fit all on one backup medium?
Here is my backup plan for outlook, perhaps it will help:
First note that I have one master folder that contains all my data. Under this I put folders for the various types of data I wish to save. Its gotten pretty crazy (like 5,000 folders and 25,000 files) but it is all in one folder and its subfolders. I have a subfolder under this called outlook data, where I have stored my outlook.pst file and all the archive files. Outlook saves the .pst in a crazy place, not making it easy to find to backup. Putting it in the area of all your data makes it much easier to regularly back all your data up including outlook.
Now these .pst files can get very large if not archived. What I do is archive by the year. If you have not been doing this I highly reccommend it. Start by looking what the oldest data is in your current .pst file. Then choose File-->Archive (2003 version). Make a new archive file named 20XX Archive for the oldest year you have data. Then set it to archive data older than 12-31-20XX and click ok. It will move the e-mails etc from your current .pst to that archive file for that year. Do this for all past years. (I usually don't make the new archive until a few mos into a new year) You will then need to go in and compact your current .pst file to make it smaller. Find this at File-->Data File Management-->choose the folder-->settings-->compact now. This completes your archiving process. Once you have the archive folders you can easily access them by File-->Open-->Outlook Data File-->browse to the file you want and select.
This now makes manageble file sizes (although mine are still 250MB or so) you can then burn years off to a burner and not worry about them again. You will want to back up your main working .pst pretty regularly.
While on the subject of failing hard drives and backups, I HIGHLY reccommend that all computers now have a RAID mirrored system. This is where the data gets written to two hard drives at the same time, so that they are mirror images of one another. If one fails, simply disconnect it and work off the other. Replace the failed drive and remake the mirror copy on the new one from the working drive. This stuff is so cheap now it isn't worth not having it and losing data/spending loads of time setting up a new drive from scratch due to a failed drive.
This mirroring will not eliminate the need to do backups, but does GREATLY reduce the chance that you will lose data if a hard drive fails. For backing up, I use a product called Easy2Sync (I have the business edition, thanks to somebody here for turning me on to this product!) every time I plug in at my office, I sync my laptops data files with the server (running RAID) so that I have a backup every time I plug into my office. I do do a back-up somewhat infrequently and move it offsite, in case of the rare event that my laptop is sitting in my office along with my server and the place goes up in smoke or something.
Anyway, I have no idea if this answers your question, but l had a moment while waiting on hold, so hopefully someone gets benefit from all this.
Edited by lorenk 10/4/2006 10:14
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backup Outlook e-mail
