What is OST and PST File - Free Guide

MS Outlook is one of the popular desktop email clients, which stores various data items such as emails, contacts, calendars, appointments in its repository files. It is mainly associated with two file formats, PST (Personal Storage Table) and OST (Offline Storage Table). However, due to several issues related to OST file, users prefer to export OST as PST file. This post is aimed to guide users on How to save OST as PST without any data loss.

Overview

OST files are the offline files in Outlook, which are created when the MS Outlook account is configured with Exchange Server. It allows users to work in an offline mode and synchronize the changes made with Exchange Server with the availability of connection. Therefore, it can be said that these files are helping hand for users in case of server downtime or inaccessibility to Exchange Server.

Location of OST: The OST files are found at following location in Windows XP:

Drive:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application data\Microsoft\Outlook

PST files serve as a main repository storage file of MS Outlook account that is used to store various Outlook items on the local computers. These files are used for POP3, IMAP and web-based email accounts. These files can be stored anywhere on the system and undergo backup of data easily.

Location: By default, PST files are stored at following location in Windows XP:

Drive:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application data\Microsoft\Outlook

Issues Related To OST Format

The OST files are not much reliable to use, as they are highly prone to file corruption and may easily lead to loss of data. OST files may undergo corruption due to following reasons:

So, it is often advisable to save the OST files as PST file in order to maintain the backup. These PST files, being more reliable and secure helps user to cope up with the issue of corrupted OST files.

Trick to Export OST as PST

There exist a number of methods, which allows user to save OST files as PST. The methods can be broadly categorized as:

A. Manual Method

OST file can be saved as PST manually by the user, without downloading any additional applications in the following three ways:

1. Export Data to PST

The in-built Export utility can be used to save the OST file as PST. It will allow users to export the OST file as PST as well as CSV format. However, this approach is not much effective as it leads to incomplete data conversion.

2. Move to New PST

The individual items of OST files can be dragged and dropped to a new PST file. As each item needs to be moved individually to Outlook PST, this method will be very time consuming in case of bulk- sized OST file.

3. Archive

Archiving the mailbox items is one of the tricks to move the OST mailbox items into PST format. This is useful mainly for complete OST file archiving. However, contacts cannot be archived by this method.

B. Third Party Applications

Another alternative is to use any of the efficient third party applications for OST to PST conversion. One such well-known software is OST to PST Converter, which allows user to save bulk OST files to PST within few easy steps. Users can choose to save various OST items such as emails, calendars, contacts, appointments into PST file format. The attachments associated with the emails can be previewed and saved as PST files. The tool also offers to recover damaged OST files. Hence, it can be considered as an effective medium to save OST files as PST without any data loss.

Conclusion

The post has been focused on discussing the issues associated with OST files, which leads to the need to extract OST files as PST. Various feasible solutions along with third party applications have been discussed in a clear manner to give a complete understanding to the user on how to save OST files as PST file.