How to make a backup copy of a Outlook .pst file ?

Microsoft Outlook stores all its data in .pst file. It includes all emails, contacts, tasks, notes, calendars and journals. Outlook .pst files plays a very significant role for Outlook but on the other hand these are very much prone to corruption and can easily get damaged. Therefore, to ensure the smooth working of Outlook it is necessary to take preventive measure to avoid loss of data. Creating the back up copy of .pst file is one such method which helps in handling outlook .pst file corruption.

Making a backup copy of .pst file helps user to gain access to data even after the .pst file get corrupted. Also through backup of .pst file the chances of getting data back in its original form increases. To make the back up of complete .pst file follow the below mentioned steps.

Steps to make a back up copy of .pst file :

1. Exit Outlook or any other messaging program such as Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Windows Messaging.

2. Go to Start → Run → type control panel and press enter. Control panel opens. In case you see Pick a category screen then click User Accounts and then move to next step.

3. Double click Mail icon → click Show profiles → click on appropriate profile and click Properties.

4. Click Data Files. Click Personal Folder Service that you need to back up, under Name.

Note - The Personal Folder Service is by default is called as Personal Folder. However, it can have some other name also. In case you have more than one Personal folder then you have to back up each .pst file separately.

5. Click Settings and note the file name and path that is shown.

The .pst file can be very large as it contains all the data stored in the MAPI folders that is used by Outlook. To reduce the size of the file, Go to Setting and click Compact Now.

6. Close all the Properties windows.

7. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer to copy the .pst file that you noted in step 5. You can copy the .pst file to any location on hard disk or other storage media such as CD-ROM, removable disk, portable hard disk, pen drive or any other device.

Creating the back up copy of Outlook .pst file is beneficial when .pst file get corrupted. You can use the back up to retrieve all the Outlook data. But sometimes even the back up file gets corrupted and you have no longer access to your .pst file. In such type of situation, a third party Outlook pst repair tool to recover all the data can be used. Although the tool is paid, but this ensures the effective outlook recovery.