How to move a Personal Folders (PST) file

Topic T1118 Applies to All NEO products



Description

A Personal Folders (PST) file may be stored in nearly any location on your system, so it follows that a PST file may be moved to another local location, such as a different folder or a different hard drive, or moved from a local drive onto a network drive or vise-versa. The following is a description of the procedure to follow when moving a PST file (message store) from one location to another and the implications of this for various versions of NEO.

With the NEO Pro functionality of cataloging multiple message stores to form a Unified Message Store, it follows that the need may arise to move one or more of perhaps many message stores that are organized in a single catalog to new locations. A maximum of 1000 message stores may be added to a single NEO catalog. These 1000 stores may consist of PST/archive PST files, or alternatively, one Exchange Server mailbox or delegate mailbox plus up to a maximum of 999 PST/archive PST files. Moving one PST to another location is sometimes far simpler than recreating the entire catalog.


Important note for Personal Folders (PST) file moves

It is important to stress that a sequence must be followed in handling PST files, particularly when removing a PST file from the Outlook user profile. If a PST file is removed from the Outlook user profile while it is still included in the NEO catalog, all messages in that PST file will be unavailable to NEO and no operations can be performed on them. It is important to synchronize the PST file out of the NEO catalog prior to removing them from the Outlook user profile.

If you are using NEO Pro, and are not sure about this process, you may wish to review the adding or removing of message stores in Knowledge Base article T1117.


Moving a Personal Folders (PST) file in NEO 2.5 or NEO 3.0 (Standard)

In NEO 2.5 and NEO 3.0 (Standard) only the default message store can be organized in a single catalog. The default message store is the one actively receiving messages as designated in the Outlook user profile. If the default message store is the only PST in the Outlook user profile and you wish to move it to a new location, you can use two methods to move it:
  1. Create a new Outlook user profile with the moved PST, or
  2. Add a new PST message store reference to the existing Outlook user profile and then remove the old one.

The steps to do this are:
  1. Close NEO.

  2. Close Outlook.

  3. Physically move the message store to its new location using Windows Explorer. If you are not sure where the Message store is to start with, use Windows Explorer search and look for '*.PST'.

  4. Using Windows 'Control Panel | Mail', switch the default message store designation to the moved PST. If only one PST file (message store) exists in the profile, then the default PST can not be changed or removed from the user profile, while if there are more than one message stores in your Outlook user profile, you can just switch the default message store designation to another message store, temporarily. Either way you will then need to add a new PST file reference. This can be done by creating the reference, giving it an appropriate name (to tell it apart from the original reference to the PST file) and then browse to the location of the newly moved PST file. You will then need to assign the default message store designation to this new PST file reference.

  5. Remove, from the profile, the original PST reference of the moved message store, the message store that is no longer the default.

  6. Start Outlook and start NEO. Choose to create a new catalog. When creating the new catalog, be sure to choose to import the old catalog in order to preserve the manual customizations made to Correspondent or Bulk Mail folders.

  7. Once the new catalog is created, and you are certain that everything is functioning properly, you can delete the old one. To do this go to the NEO Main Menu and choose 'File | Catalog | Delete Catalog'.


Moving a Personal Folders (PST) file in NEO Pro 3.0

If you have only one PST message store in your NEO catalog, it's best to follow the instructions above for moving catalogs in NEO 2.5 and NEO 3.0 (Standard). If you have several message stores organized in your NEO Pro 3.0 catalog, it is advantageous to move a PST file by first removing it from the NEO catalog, physically moving the file to a new location and then adding it back into the catalog rather than creating an all new catalog once the message store is moved. You can use the latter method but it will take considerably more time to recreate a catalog with many message stores than to remove and then add one message store to the existing catalog. The steps to do this are:

  1. Go to NEO 'File | Message Stores' or 'File | Catalog | Catalog Properties | Message Stores tab' and uncheck the message store that is to be moved.

  2. Once the store is synchronized out of the catalog, close NEO.

  3. Remove the message store from your Outlook user profile (use Windows 'Control Panel | Mail');

  4. Close Outlook.

  5. Physically move the message store to its new location using Windows Explorer. If you are not sure where the Message store is, use Windows Explorer search and look for '*.PST'.

  6. When the message store is moved, add it back into your Outlook user profile (use Windows 'Control Panel | Mail' );

  7. Start Outlook and start NEO. On the NEO Main Menu click 'File | Message Stores' (or 'File | Catalog | Catalog Properties | Message Stores tab')';

  8. You will see all of the message stores available to NEO with the ones currently cataloged checked;

  9. To add a new message store just check that/those message store(s) and click OK. NEO will then begin the synchronization process to add the store(s) into your catalog.


Exchange Server Mailbox Stores

An Exchange Server mailbox will always be receiving messages; Therefore an Exchange Server mailbox (or delegate mailbox) must be the default message store for a NEO catalog. This said, in NEO you may not have more than one Exchange Server mailbox (this includes delegate Exchange Server mailboxes) in a single catalog. You may have multiple catalogs, each with a separate Exchange Server mailbox or delegate mailbox.

It is seldom necessary to remove or add an Exchange mailbox message store to a NEO catalog. It is more often the case that a new catalog would be created in NEO for a new Exchange Server mailbox store or an additional delegate mailbox.


Last updated: 31 Dec 2004