DIFFERENT METHODS OF SPLITTING PST FILE:

Ms-Outlook is a free email service provided by Microsoft & used as a Personal Information Manager. Over 50% of the users are currently using Ms-Outlook as an interface for exchange information because of its security and reliability. To save our messages, calendars, events, Ms-Outlook used PST file format. I have already discussed in brief about the PST file format & Importance of PST file in Ms-Outlook. In this post, I will discuss some methods to split your PST File. But first you should know why we need to split PST File? To know the reason see the following issues and have you ever observed these common problems with MS-Outlook?

• Speeds Get Slow Down 
• Reading E-mail MSG 
• Moving E-mail MSG 
• Deleting E-mail MSG

 If yes then you should definitely split your PST File. This all is happening due to large sized PST File. Microsoft has provided a tool to split large sized PST file. The name of tool is pst2g tool. This tool split your large sized PST file but there is no surety of getting your original data back. The adequate method to solve the problem of large size PST file is to split your PST File by using third party tool .By using third party tool; you may able to split your PST file by

Split PST File by Size: - Large size PST file can lead to corruption. The best way to avoid corruption is to split your PST file in to small PST files. It's easy to manage small PST file as compare to large PST. One more benefit of splitting large PST file in to small PST files is you will be able to access it on every version of Ms-Outlook. 

Split PST File By Date: Increased size of mail box also increase the size of PST file which can be the reason to corrupt your PST file. To prevent your pst file from corruption, you should manage your PST file by splitting it according to a specific date & time. After splitting, save your split PST at a new location. 

Split PST File by Folders: its obvious e-mail send by you consist of attachments. These attachments make your PST file size large & will also create problem in sending & receiving emails. The only solution to this problem is splitting your PST file according to specific folders. In this option, you can make a new PST file for a specific folder that reduces the size of PST file. 

E-mail Id’s:- Suppose you are working as a Project Manager & handling multiple projects at the same time. At the same time, you are asked to give reply of a specific email. It will take too much time to search for a specific client email from the pool of emails. You can avoid this situation by splitting PST file by using e-mail id contains all information like (To. Bcc, Cc). After that, you can find it easily & can save your time.

After reading above methods (date, size, folders & e-mail id), now you can easily choose which method is more beneficial for you to split your large size PST file.

HOW TO MIGRATE LOTUS NOTES EMAIL TO OUTLOOK?

E-mails are the most fast & reliable way for exchange of information. In IT world, there are various email service providers such as Gmail, Lotus Notes, Microsoft, Thunderbird, Yahoo and many more. These emails services have their own applications, own file format as well as interface to communicate with server. Although there are many email service providers but there are few features that make MS-Outlook user's first choice as compared to Lotus Notes that are

• Installation Cost
• User Friendly Interface
• More Secure
• Easy Migration

Both these e-mail application service provider (Lotus Notes & Ms-Outlook) have their own pros & Cons. I am also an IT professional using Lotus Notes application. As a Lotus Notes user, I am facing many difficulties like:-

• File Doesn't Exist
• Entry Not Found In Index
• Server Error
• Database is Incorrect

Therefore, sometimes it's difficult for me to maintain my lotus notes files i.e. NSF. Every time, I need a technical expert to sort out my NSF file problem. Then I decided to use email services provided by Microsoft & choose MS-Outlook, I found, it's good for me to use MS-Outlook for the same work. I hope you also know, Lotus Notes are associated with NSF file format to store email where as MS-Outlook is associated with PST for the same. To use MS-Outlook, as a source of exchange information, I have to convert my all NSF files in to PST files. Here, I am assuming that you are aware of all importance of NSF & PST file. By applying few steps, I have successfully migrate my all Lotus Notes email to MS-Outlook mail .I am sharing these steps with you which will help you in migrating your Lotus Notes in to PST file.

Requirement for Migration: - We know NSF & PST files support by different email applications. These email applications use different interface to perform their operations. That’s' why before migration, you need following two applications:-

• Lotus Notes
• Microsoft Outlook.

Steps for Migration: - Follow few steps to migrate your NSF file in to PST file.

1. Start you Lotus Notes.
2. Inside the Lotus Notes there is a mail tab. Click on the mail tab.
3. In Mail tab you see a Menu bar is appearing.
4. Go to Menu bar & click on the File section ,
5. In file section go to Export option.
6. As you click on Export you see a wizard starts named as “Export”.
7. Continue with your Export Wizard.
8. Now, To Export all the mails click on End section to stop the Wizard.
9. In Next Step open your Microsoft Outlook.
10. Import your all mail files.
11. Again go to File Menu and click on wizard named as “Export & Import”.
12. Start the process through wizard by clicking on the file You Export from Lotus Notes.
13. You will be asked “What File you want to Import in to Outlook”
14. Click on the Finish to end the wizard.
15. Import your all Lotus Notes file mail file in to MS-Outlook files.

These are the few simple steps to migrate your NSF file in to PST files. This is the free method of migrating your all NSF files in to PST files. However if you are not able to migrate your file by using above steps then don't worry .There is one another option to migrate your NSF files in to PST files that is third party tool. Various third party tools (NSF to PST File Converter) are available in the market along with their user manual. They also provide you assuring of no data loss.

I hope the information shared by me is useful to migrate NSF files to PST files.

An Introduction to Ms-Outlook & Outlook Express Environment

Ms-Outlook used PST Files to store information same as Outlook Express used DBX files to store all information. Before proceeding for DBX and PST files, let me clear out the basic difference between Outlook Express & MS-Outlook. Although these two applications shares a common architectural philosophy but don’t have a common code base. The main differences between these two applications are explained below:-

Functionality: - MS-Outlook is enriched with the features of emails, personal calendars, group scheduling, task, and contact management. While Outlook Express is enriched with features of newsgroup & email only.

Technical Support: - MS-Outlook has full support for voice mail where as this feature is not supported in Outlook Express. Ms-Outlook can be used with Exchange Server, or any other standards-based communication system that supports MAPI while this is not supported in Outlook Express.

May be a question will get arise in your mind!! How can we access our information using these two applications?

In the starting of the article, I have already mention that In Ms-Outlook & Outlook Express, information is stored in form of files named as DBX files (Outlook Express) & PST files(Ms-Outlook). But both files are working in a different ways. Here are all differences:

DBX FILES: - DBX files are Outlook Express Database file used to store email messages, newsgroups, & folders. These files are introduced in Version5 with Outlook Express. Outlook Express has its own file structure with .dbx extension. Outlook express email application has name corresponding to their mailboxes like inbox.dbx, sentitems.dbx, Drafts.dbx, Folders.Dbx .

File Size: - The maximum file size for DBX file is 2 GB. Due to less file size, it may be difficult to send music files, videos, photos etc through the use of this file.

Location of Files:-. Every Application has a default location to save file associated with them. In the same way, Location of DBX File is:

C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{……..}\Microsoft\Outlook Express.

PST FILES: - Microsoft Outlook is a standalone application which provides us the features of storing our emails, calendars, to-do list, notes, and other outlook data in PST File Format. PST is an outlook data file abbreviated as Personal Storage Table.

File Size:-When concept of PST file is introduced, its predefine size was 2 GB .According to the users need, now PST files can save up to 50 GB data easily.

Location of File:- The location of PST file depends on the version of windows used by the user.

Windows 7 & Windows Vista: - drive:\Users\user\App Data\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

Windows XP:-drive:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft

\Outlook

Conclusion: Above are some basics & necessary points that explain the difference between Ms-Outlook & Outlook Express, which can be very helpful to understand the overall structure of these two Microsoft Email Clients.

Why we need to convert NSF file to PST file

Before explaining the reasons behind NSF to PST conversion, I would like to share basics of NSF file. NSF files are IBM Lotus Notes files expanded as Notes Storage File. These files can also be used for the process of data replication. Lotus Notes are associated with many types of databases. The most common databases associated with Lotus Notes files are:

• Mail Box Database: - Mail box databases are used to store mailboxes on Domino Server.

• Address Box Database: - Address Box databases are used to store contact records on User's PC .These databases are stored locally.

These Lotus Notes files are saved by using .NSF file. Anyone can easily access & read an NSF File by using Lotus Notes Client. Don’t get confuse with Lotus Domino Server or Lotus Notes Server as both are same thing.

Need For Conversion:

Email plays a vital role in the IT world to exchange information in a smarter and faster way. We all know that NSF files are designed by IBM & contain our emails, messages, calendars entries, notes data, task & to do list etc. PST files play the same role like NSF files in MS-Outlook. The difference between these two files is that we need two different platforms to operate these (NSF & PST) files. There are top two reasons for the conversion of NSF to PST file.

• Maintenance & Installation:-To install Lotus Notes Application is not a Child’s play .You must expertise in installing the Lotus Domino to enjoy the uninterrupted services of IBM. Also the installation cost of Lotus notes is very high as compared to MS-Outlook. It’s not possible for every small organization or home user’s to afford such a high installation cost. On the other hand, MS-Outlook has more user friendly environment as compared to Lotus Notes. It’s user friendly interface that force user‘s to convert all NSF files into PST file format.

• Job Switch: - Suppose you are working with an organization which works on Lotus Notes platform & all of a sudden you decide to switch your organization and you want to carry your Lotus Notes data with you as it stores all your valuable information. Perhaps your new organization is using MS-Outlook for exchanging the information then? While Lotus Notes Files will not work on MS Outlook platform. To overcome this situation or to access your Lotus Notes mails without any loss of information, you have to convert all Lotus Notes (NSF) files in to MS-Outlook (PST) files.

I think above reasons are sufficient for any lotus notes user to migrate the NSF files in to PST files, you can easily migrate lotus notes data with outlook using any third party tool. But when you are going to choose the third party tool, first ensure that tool is compatible with all versions of windows as well as Lotus Notes & also convert your NSF file without any data loss. The tool should also have user manual so that you can perform conversion smoothly.