Know How to Backup PST Data Stored on a Microsoft Exchange Server
If you are working with an email account located on a Microsoft Exchange Server, it is time to get familiar with Personal Folders File or PST files. PST file is a file used by Outlook to store data from not just the Microsoft Exchange Account that you are interacting with and obviously have an account on but also items from all other accounts. It helps you access and manage this data better by allowing for settings such as Views, Rules and Alerts, Forms as well as AutoArchive. Importantly, this PST file is also able to store other personal information such as your mail messages, contacts, calendar entries, journals, tasks and notes. It is thus also called the Personal Folders and Outlook Data file. As you can understand, it is crucial that you take regular back ups of this important file so that you can carry out a successful outlook recovery if there is any damage to the file.Of course, before we inform you of how to back up your PST data, you will need to know where the file that needs backing up is located. If you are using Outlook, you can breathe easy since in a home environment, all the Outlook data is stored in just one PST file. As we have mentioned earlier, this file contains all our personal and confidential information. By default, the PST file is typically located in - C:Documents and Settings%username%Local SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook
However, if you have trouble finding it, just use the Search tool to locate the PST file.
Now follow the steps below in order to take an effective back up of the PST file.
1. You cannot back up the file when a program such as Outlook, Microsoft Windows Messaging or a connection to Microsoft Exchange is still on. Close all these programs before proceeding to the next step.
2. From the Control Panel, go to User Accounts, open the Mail option and click on Show Profiles.
3. Once you have chosen the appropriate profile associated with your mailbox, you can go to the Properties section.
4. Choose Data Files and under Name, you can choose the Personal Folders Service that you would like to back up.
Needless to add this back up copy of the PST file can be very helpful in restoring data during an outlook recovery, if there is an unexpected hardware failure and you lose data or if you would just like to copy the data from one location to another.
Despite taking these precautions, it is possible that the back up copy of the PST file itself becomes corrupted due to reasons such as virus attacks, software problems or hardware failures. One of the easiest and most effective ways of restoring data from a damaged PST file in such situations is to use specially developed recovery software like Advanced Outlook Repair from DataNumen. Using sophisticated algorithms to scan, locate and then restore the data, software of this kind can handle very large PST files and make your job of outlook recovery that much easier.