Here's the deal. In April 2009, I left my job. Prior to leaving I made a copy of my Microsoft Outlook 2003 .pst file. It's nearly 10 Gigs! Now, I am working from home and using an older version of Microsoft Outlook (2002), and have this compatibility issue to deal with. Essentially, I can't open my old work pst file using Outlook 2002. (From what I have read in far too many forums, this is a compatibility issue.) In an attempt to resolve it, I have installed a trial version of Outlook 2007 and am trying to pass the contents of my old work pst file (again, created using Outlook 2003 and *unfortunately* not created as compatible) to a compatible version which will allow me to open it and use it with Outlook 2002. The only hitch is that my file size is too large, since Microsoft Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders files (.pst) aparently have a limit of 2 Gigs. What can I do? I don't want to pay to upgrade Outlook just to get access to my emails!!! (One could speculate open-endedly on why Microsoft would conveniently overlook this issue in its Help and Support pages, but I for one am looking to find a solution; not an enemy.) Is it possible to just increase the size allowance of the Microsoft Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders files (.pst) somehow? What other options might I have? Thanks in advance for any help you kind folks can offer.1 person got this answerI do too

The main problem is that you let your .pst file get so huge. You should extract what you need and archive the rest. You'll need third-party software to do this. Start looking at this excellent Outlook Help site: http://slipstick.com/ If you need more help, they also have forums. Another place where you can contact Outlook experts - and you'll probably need Outlook experts to guide you with this - is in one of the Outlook newsgroups: From the web - http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx? MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

Open your data file within OL2007 trialCreate a new data file in old format (97 -2002)Copy data from your origonal to thisYou will need to create several pst'sEarlier versions of outlook can baulk from 1.6gb data file size

Thanks, you two! I opted for Palcouk's suggestion in the end, because it was less time-intensive. In the future, I think I'll be archiving. Thanks again!