How to setup .ost/.pst files to backup to a network drive?

[AlbanWhitehead]

We are currently using a hosted version of Microsoft Outlook Exchange. However, the service does not include email archiving.

I'm aware that Outlook Exchange creates a .ost data file on both the mail server and on the local PC. And I'm seeing a lot of people writing comments on forums saying that you don't have to backup a .ost file because you already have it in the mail server. But that's because they have their own mail server available to them, right?

How can I setup the copy of the .ost data file that goes to my local PC, to backup to a network drive? Or maybe convert the .ost to .pst and have it setup to automatically do all of this? Is there a way to do this? Please advise. Thank you.

 

[cyclone3d]

1. If you want to backup .ost data you do not want to just convert it to a .pst. If you do that, once it downloads the emails they are deleted off of the server.

2. As far as I am aware, it doesn't matter whether you are using Exchange or not. Downloading emails to the .ost file should never delete emails off of the server unless specifically set to do so. If anybody knows differently about hosted Exchange then fell free to chime in.

3. There used to be a free PST backup software, but it was meant for Outlook 2007. On 2010 it is a huge pain to get working.. so much so that it is not even worth doing it.

4. All you really need to backup .pst files is a backup program that uses the volume shadow copy service to do the backups.

5. Another thing about .pst files is that once they get to a certain size they tend to get corrupted fairly easily.

6. It is also a pain to do backups of these super large .pst files as it takes forever... I have several users who have 30GB+ .pst files.

7. The best way I have found is to make a .pst file for each year. That generally keeps the .pst file size manageable.

 

[EthanGreene83]

«I'm aware that Outlook Exchange creates a .ost data file on both the mail server and on the local PC. And I'm seeing a lot of people writing comments on forums saying that you don't have to backup a .OST file because you already have it in the mail server. But that's because they have their own mail server available to them, right?»
Not exactly correct. The .OST file does not get created on the mail server end at all, they only get created on the client end when you use Outlook to connect to an Exchange server.

An .ost file is basically an offline copy of a mailbox hosted on an Exchange server. When you delete this file, it gets rebuilt automatically by re-downloading the content from the Exchange server as that's where your emails are stored. You don't need to back up this file at all as long as your Hosted Exchange provider is doing their job properly and backing up your emails.

Now there are third-party tools out there which can convert a .OST file to a .PST file format but these are generally used for recovery purposes should say the Exchange server blow up and you have no backups whatsoever.
I hope this clears things up for you. You can still visit this forum and read there the recommendations on this problem
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140704025027AA0onZj

 

[oneforspeed]

Dang this saved me some hours and helped me a bunch. Thanks.

1. If you want to backup .ost data you do not want to just convert it to a .pst. If you do that, once it downloads the emails they are deleted off of the server.

2. As far as I am aware, it doesn't matter whether you are using Exchange or not. Downloading emails to the .ost file should never delete emails off of the server unless specifically set to do so. If anybody knows differently about hosted Exchange then fell free to chime in.

3. There used to be a free PST backup software, but it was meant for Outlook 2007. On 2010 it is a huge pain to get working.. so much so that it is not even worth doing it.

4. All you really need to backup .pst files is a backup program that uses the volume shadow copy service to do the backups.

5. Another thing about .pst files is that once they get to a certain size they tend to get corrupted fairly easily.

6. It is also a pain to do backups of these super large .pst files as it takes forever... I have several users who have 30GB+ .pst files.

7. The best way I have found is to make a .pst file for each year. That generally keeps the .pst file size manageable.