Wharton Computing Student Support

Creating Personal Folders in Outlook 2003

This document provides instructions on how to create Personal Folders (.pst files) to both transfer individual e-mail messages and to make a copy of your entire account including all messages, contacts, calendar events, etc. there within for Outlook 2003.
Please note: These instructions will only work if you have Outlook 2003 configured in Exchange mode to access your Wharton account, this will not work if you are using Webmail. For instructions on configuring Outlook 2003 in Exchange mode, please see http://spike.wharton.upenn.edu/support/email/outlook_2003.cfm.

If you are using Outlook 2007, instructions for creating personal folders in Microsoft Outlook 2007 can be found online at:
http://spike.wharton.upenn.edu/support/email/personal_folders_2007.cfm

Personal folders provide many benefits. Some of these include:

• Allowing you to create back-up copies of your e-mail on your hard drive.
• Enabling you to move e-mails to your hard drive to avoid exceeding your disk quota on the Wharton Exchange server.

Choose which type of Personal Folder is right for you

• Create a Personal Folder to transfer individual e-mail messages onto your local hard drive.
• Create a Personal Folder to make a copy of your entire Wharton email account including messages, contacts, and calendar events.

Saving individual items into a Personal Folder

Note: Before creating Personal Folders, remember
You can only access Personal Folders when using your personal computer. They will not be available through Webmail. If you remove a message from the Exchange Server and place it in your Personal Folders, that will be the only copy.

STEP 1: Create the your Personal Folder (.pst file).

1. Open Outlook and click on the File Menu. Select Data File Management.
   
   

   

2. Click the Add button.
   
   

   

3. Select Personal Folders File from the New Outlook Data File list and press OK.
   
   

   

4. Type a name for your Personal Folder in the File Name box. Click OK.
   
   
5. Type a more descriptive name for your Personal Folders in this Name box. This name will appear on your Outlook screen. Click OK.
   
   

   

6. Check to see if your Personal Folder appears in the Outlook Data Files window. Click Close.
   
   

   

7. Your personal folder will now appear in your list of Outlook folders. If you do not see this list, click the View menu and select Folder List.
   
   

   

STEP 2: Moving your messages into your newly created folder.

You may move your messages into your newly created folder by either:

1. Selecting them with the mouse and dragging them to your personal folder. To select more than one message at once, hold down the Ctrl key and click several messages. Or, hold down the Shift key and click the first and last messages in a series.
   
2. Right clicking on the messages, groups of messages, or mail folder and selecting move to folder, then selecting your newly created personal folder.

Creating a copy of your entire account

1. From Outlook's File menu, select Import and Export.
2. From the Import and Export Wizard window, select Export to a file then click Next >.
   
   

   

3. From the Export to a File window, select Personal Folder File (.pst) then click Next >.
   
   

   

4. From the Export Personal Folders window, select Mailbox - (your name). This will make a backup of your entire Wharton email account including messages, contacts, and calendar items. Make sure you have checked Include Subfolders and then click Next >..
   
   

   

5. Finally, from the Export Personal Folders window, select the location that you would like your backup to be saved to and then click Finish.
   
   

   

Making a Backup of Your Personal Folder

After you have created your personal folder or folders and have added the information you want to it, it is important that you make a backup of that new folder. To make a backup of the folder, please do the following:

• From the start menu, select Search.
• Click the All files and folders option.
• Click the More Advanced Options button.
• Make sure the following boxes are checked: Search System Folders, Search Hidden Files and Folders, and Search Subfolders.
• In the All or part of filename box, type: *.pst (that's an asterisk, a period, then pst).
• Click the Search button and wait until it has finished its search.
• In the search results window, go to the Edit tab located within the top menu of the screen, and select the Select All option.
• While all the files (it could be as few as 1) are selected, go to the Edit tab located within the top menu of the screen, and select the Copy option.
• Minimize the search results screen and open the backup directory in which you would like to store the personal folder in. (This directory could be on a USB flash drive, external hard drive, or a folder that you plan to backup to CD)
• With your backup directory window open, go to the Edit tab located within the top menu of the screen, and select the Paste option.
• Once you see the personal folder files found in the search appear in your backup directory, the backup is complete. You can then close the search results window.