-
OT: Outlook Backup
We use Outlook for out email and we’ve battled a nagging problem for years: backing it up.
We currently use Retrospect, which has utilities that you can add to specifically back up Outlook. Problem is, they don’t work very well. The main problem is that if Outlook clients make use of things like reminders and other functions that generate pop-ups, the backup typically fails on those client’s because Retrospect CANNOT seem to interact with Outlook to close dialogue boxes that need closing…or close it fast enough to allow the backup to run properly (Outlook sometimes takes 30-60 seconds to close then release from memory.) Retrospect doesn’t have the ability to delay the start of a backup once it’s initiated, so that’s not an option.
Dantz, the company that makes Retrospect has never been any help on the matter…and we’ve demo’d literally a dozen other backup applications from low-end to high-end to see which ones work with Outlook…and we’ve yet to find one that works as advertised.
So…what do others on the list with Outlook use for backups? Also…how do you set them up and manage them since Outlook keeps EVERYTHING in one big data file. We try to backup twice a week to two different locations. That way, if one backup fails or is bad, I have the other one to fall back on.
You cannot do incremental backups because of the way Outlook stores data. The .pst data file is looked at as “new” each time you backup. So if you have a 1GB pst file and back it up twice a week, you end up with two, 1GB backups. Over the course of a year you waste a lot of space with out of date backups doing it this way.
Any suggestions welcome on this.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
2 Replies
-
Have not used Outlook in years, but I used to back up the PST file (just drag it to another device) as well as export out to Excel spreadsheet format, leaving me with a searchable database.
Frank
___________________________
Franklin McMahon / Host
CreativeCow.net PODCAST
frank@fmstudio.com
Creative Cow Podcast Page
Creative Cow Podcast in iTunesMedia Artist Secrets Blog / Franklin McMahon TV Show: FranklinMcMahon.com
Studio Page -
So nobody else has this problem? Doesn’t anyone besides us use Outlook for email? The manual backup Franklin mentions isn’t an option when we have 8 people that need backing up. People can’t remember to close the application on the days they’re scheduled for backup much less manually back up their databases.
I’ve searched and searched for automated solutions and demo’d many backup apps, and none of them work properly with Outlook when people use the reminders and pop-up functions.
Thanks!
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up