Managing Archive Files

There are several reasons to archive Outlook items. You might need to preserve space in your Outlook data store, or you might want to archive all items related to a specific project because the project is complete. Depending on your reasons for automatically archiving, you might end up with a variety of archive folders on your hard drive. In certain circumstances, you might want to keep those folders on your hard drive. However, there are also reasons why you might want to transfer some or all of your archive files to a CD or other media.

If you transfer archive files to a CD, be aware that you won't be able to access those files while they reside on a CD. Outlook needs both read and write access to a Personal Folders file (which is the type of file you create when you archive). If you store that file on a CD, Outlook cannot write to that file. Copy the file back to your hard drive to access the file.

If you receive cryptic messages when trying to access an archive file formerly stored on CD, see "Information Store Properties" in the "Troubleshooting" section at the end of this chapter.

Restoring Archived Items to Their Original Folder

The purpose of AutoArchive is to preserve your Outlook items in the same folder structure they had before being archived. If you archive a folder called Network Infrastructure Upgrade, items from that folder don't just end up in a general archive folder they're placed in a folder called Network Infrastructure Upgrade within your archive Personal Folders file.

If you need to restore any items that have been archived, you can do so easily, provided the folder still exists in your default Outlook message store.

To open an archive Personal Folders file, select File, Open, Outlook Data File. You can then navigate to your archive file and double-click it to open it in the folder tree. If you used the default AutoArchive settings, the archive folder will already be visible in your folder tree. To view your archive folders, click the folder list icon in the Navigation Pane to display your folder list, as shown in Figure 24.14.

Figure 24.14. You can view your archive folders in the Folder List.

Click the plus sign next to Archive Folders to display the archive file's folder structure. You can navigate to any folder in that list to view items that have been archived. You can then either drag individual items back to their original folders or drag an entire folder back to your main Outlook message store.

You can also import items from an Archive Personal Folders file. To do so, use the following steps:

1. Select File, Import and Export. Choose to import from another program or file and click Next.

   NOTE

   If you've installed Business Contact Manager, you'll need to select File, Import and Export, Outlook.

2. Scroll down the list of available files to import from and choose Personal Folders file (.pst). Click Next.

3. Browse to locate your archive Personal Folders file. Unless you changed the name of the file, it will be named Archive.pst or something very similar.

4. Choose a method of handling duplicate items. You can choose Replace Duplicates with Items Imported, Allow Duplicates to Be Created, or Do Not Import Duplicates. Click Next.

5. Choose the folder in your Archive Personal Folders file you want to import from. You can choose the top-level folder and check the box marked Include Subfolders to import all items in the Archive Personal Folders file to your default message store. You can also choose to import items into the current folder or into the same folder in your mailbox.

6. Click Finish to start the import.

NOTE

You can even import only items that meet specific criteria. To filter the items being imported, click the Filter button to display a dialog box that enables you to enter specific criteria a message must meet before it will be imported.