Arrghhh. Forgive my typos. It's late this side of 'the pond'. Above should read:- "embarrassment" and "I'm pretty sure others...".

FizzyPopMan

I've used Outlook for many years, and on several occasions I have fallen victim to a corrupted .PST file. In the early days, this was not a massive problem, but now (with several hundred contacts and e-mails (that I can't afford to lose) backing up is absolutely essential.

More recently, I wanted a solution that would allow me to 'sync' my Outlook across multiple computers (ie. I could 'log on' to either work or home PC and both would reflect any e-mails I had sent or received, and appointments made that day etc).

The solution of course was Microsoft Exchange, but as a freelancer (with no IT support) I didn't even know there was such a thing! (I look back in embaressmment now). In fact I only discovered Exchange after doing quite a bit of research (this was before the existance of Lifehacker remember!). To be honest, setting up my remote service was a bit tricky, and took several hours of fiddling with settings to get it working.

It was well worth the effort though... I no longer am paranoid about losing all my Outlook data It is now held on all three of my PCs, my mobile phone, and on a remote server to boot. I also copy the OST. file onto an external hard drive for good measure!

I think it would be great if Lifehacker ran a feature on how to set up an Exchange account using a third party host (e.g. 1&1), explaining what it is, what the benefits are, and who might consider using it (I don't recall this being done previously).

Granted, there will be many readers who are doing this already (or maybe they hate Outlook or prefer GMail etc) but I'm pretty others (especially newbies) would benefit... love or loathe Outlook, you can't escape the fact that many people use it, and will continue to use it.

Just a thought... I would be interested to know if others agree?

FizzyPopMan

I know you were only repeating the original author's misstatement, but since the method only applies to email and not all Outlook data, you should probably refer to "emails" instead of "data".

joelena

He doesn't make it too clear in the article that Outlook's own encryption for PST files is surprisingly useless. A tool like PSTPassword can give you a working password for a encrypted PST file instantly.

jonadair

I just have a batch script that does the following:

use taskkill to kill outlook
use robocopy to copy it somewhere
restart outlook

holymogwai

"Unfortunately Outlook isn't great about backing up your PST file while Outlook is running..."

I have used the following outlook plugin from microsoft itself quite successfully for this purpose.

[www.microsoft.com]

daftary

I currently use MailStore Home ([www.mailstore.com]). I've been using it only for one week and found it very good, compare to Amic Email Backup. Advantage:
- It can backup while the outlook still running
- Support many mail client program
- Ability to export to another mail program (Outlook to thunderbird anyone?)
- Search & View emails inside the backup (without the email client).

blaszta

@joelena : You can set a rule to make a copy of your appointments and tasks too with this method.

vinodlive

Not to mention another very important thing to remember about PST files (especially older versions of outlook) is the secret "size-limit-before-your-data-becomes-corrupt" feature that was put in place. Had many GREAT experiences with that, trying to recover lost emails because PST files were way to big. So backing up your PST file is important, but archiving, splitting, and deleting large attachments if crucial to keeping your data viable

joshmm1

I setup a rule in Outlook to copy all my incoming email to a gmail account.

No storage woes and I can access them anywhere.

klaatu00001

@klaatu00001:

you must have worked for mediadefender :>

spasm

I prefer to migrate and backup to tape.

nicknackpaddyHack