Helpdesk

Background

Since there's a relatively limited amount of space available on the Mednet email server, the "personal folder" becomes the alternative to archive emails that are necessary for records but not actively referred to. At Human Genetics, we recommend storing such "personal folder", which is basically a file with a .pst extention), on the user's network drive, commonly known as the M drive.

When is the personal folder needed

It is needed when you have reached your quota after heavy use, and you have stored more items in the mailbox than allowed.
It is not intended for indiscriminate attachment storage. You should always groom your mailbox for unnecessary items first, especially attachments (both from Inbox and Sent Items).

All folders under "Mailbox - Your name" are still stored on the email server, so even if you move data from the Inbox to those subfolders, your quota-use stays the same. The next step is to create a personal folder where you can free up your quota by moving mail off the email server to the local drive, or as described in this how-to, the M network drive.

Steps

At this point, it is assumed that you have used your Mednet email account for a while and have accumulated more email than you can groomed away and have reached your quota mulitple times.

* The wording used in the following instructions may not be exact. Wording differs depending on the version of Outlook you're using, but the general name will be very similar.

1. While logged on in Outlook, go to Tools, Account Settings, and go to the Data Files tab
2. Click on the Add... button to add and configure a new Personal Folder File.
3. Choose the type of Outlook Data File you want. If you're using Outlook 2003, you will want to choose "Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders File (.pst)" to get most compatibility with other systems, e.g. Titan etc.
4. A window will pop up prompting you to choose where to save the new file. Browse to your M: drive and navigate to whatever folder you want to save it in.
5. Put in a filename. We recommend it to include something about your username and the date or year. This makes it easier for you to distinguish older folders from newer ones. Click Ok.
6. Another window will pop up to ask you what you want to name the folder. Choose a meaningful name, this will be the one that shows up in your list of folders in the left navigation pane of Outlook. At this point, you are also given the option to create a password for this folder. Whether or not you implement this is your preference. Click Ok when you are done. 7. The new Personal Folders File you have created should now show up under the list of Data Files. Make sure it has been created by checking your M drive, the file named above should appear. Also, make sure that the Data File labeled "Mailbox - Lastname, Firstname" is still listed as the default. Click on the Close button and you should be all done!

Note: Microsoft Outlook imposes a roughly 2-gigabyte size restriction on any and all Personal Folders Files (.pst). However, some users have reported problems with accessing their folders even before reaching that limit (usually when they reach the 1.5 gigabyte threshold). To avoid this, keep an eye on the size growth of your pst files and create new ones as you see fit.

Another crucial step to reconfigure AutoArchive settings

After this, another crucial step is to reconfigure your AutoArchive settings within Outlook. By default, Outlook will prompt to archive your email messages to a certain location. That location is NOT what we want to use, especially after setting up the personal folder outlined above. Here is the HOW-TO on AutoArchive.