Advantages and Methods of Compacting Large PST File

At times, while exiting Outlook, you get a dialog box prompting you to compact your PST file. Many of you click 'Yes' for this or many may click 'No' as well. However, if you click 'Yes', then your Outlook starts compacting your large PST file. Compacting PST file benefits you in many ways and some of the remarkable advantages for the same are:

• Trims the size of your PST file to a considerable amount: By compressing your PST file, you reduce its size to significant amount; and thus, you need not to check its size every now and then to see whether it is getting bigger and bigger. 

• Optimizes the performance of your Outlook: Small PST is not only easy to manage, but it also improves the performance of Outlook as well. Having compacted PST file, you will notice considerable improvement in the performance of your Outlook. Therefore, compressing the PST file is the best way to reduce the sluggish behavior of your Outlook. 

• Cut down the chances of data loss: Large PST file is one of the biggest reasons of PST corruption. However, having smaller or compressed PST decreases these chances as it does not reach or cross over the predefined size of PST file. In this way, it reduces the chances of data loss that are caused due to large PST file.

You can go for automatic compaction of Outlook PST file when it prompts you by providing a dialog box for the same, as well as you can compact your PST file manually also. However, manual compaction is better than automatic compaction as in it you need not to wait for Outlook to ask you to compact your PST file. Instead you can compact your PST file by yourself whenever you find that PST has increased in size.

Follow below mentioned steps to compact your large PST file manually:

• On your Outlook menu, select 'File >> Data File Management' and then highlight your PST file.
• Select 'Settings' and click 'Compact Now'.

However, manual compaction of large PST file can be a time taking process; moreover you cannot schedule it. Therefore in such scenarios use of professional compact PST software is recommended. One such tool is Stellar Phoenix Compact PST. This tool compresses the large PST file by separating the attachments and storing them to a different folder. Apart from this, it installs itself as an 'Add In' in your MS Outlook application, and thus enables you to compact the PST file from your Outlook.