Outlook - PST File & Moving PST Folder

Moving PST Folder Location

                       PST Stands For personal storage table, is the file format for the data files that Outlook uses to store all ofyour Outlook data, including your emails, contacts, calendar, and more.

                    OST files are the same format as PST, but are generally used as offline storage of email whereas PST files are used for email archival.

                   POP3 or IMAP accounts email may be stored in a PST File,while emails synced from a Hotmail account within the hotmail connector may be stored in a OST File.Exchange accounts may use both an OST file for offline access and a PST file for data backup.
             
                 In Outlook 2010,Open the File menu and choose Account Settings. 

In Outlook 2007,Click Account Settings from the Tools menu. 

Open the account Settings Window . Click Data Files tab to see your Outlook data files, including PST and OST files.  If you have multiple accounts in Outlook, you may notice several data files listed.  You can choose settings for each file, or click Open File Location to open the Outlook data folder in Explorer.

PST Files Saved Location:

Windows Vista or 7:

%localappdata%\Microsoft\outlook\

Windows XP:

%appdata%\Microsoft\outlook\

MOVING PST FILES:

        If you’re running out of storage space on your primary drive or would like to place your Outlook files in a more manageable location, you may want to move where Outlook stores your data files. 

      By default, if you simply move your Outlook data files to a new location, Outlook will automatically redownload your emails to a new PST file.  All that would accomplish is make you have to spend longer re-downloading your emails, as well as make it impossible to view older, archived emails from Outlook.

Instead, you’ll first need to change a registry value to change where Outlook stores its data files.  Exit Outlook, and then enter regedit in the Start Menu search or Run command to open the registry editor.  Browse to the correct key, depending on your version of Outlook:

   

             OUTLOOK 2010: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Sostware\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\

             OUTLOOK 2007: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Sostware\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\

             OUTLOOK 2003: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Sostware\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\

Enter Force PST Path as the value’s name, then right-click it and select Modify.

Enter the location to the folder where you wish to store your Outlook data files, and then click Ok.

Move all of the contents of your Outlook data folder you opened above to the new folder you specified, and then reopen Outlook.  Everything should work as before, except now your Data files are stored where you want them to be stored!