BleepingComputer.com: Outlook 2003 Shutting Down

Hi. This is my first post.

I recently got the idea to split up my Outlook 2003 .pst into separate files to save space, load faster, etc. So, I copied the .pst, renamed the copy, and proceeded to clean out duplicate messages and compacted the files. I wanted the renamed file to be my default.

I then went in and added the new .pst as one to open and also changed which .pst would get my current mail.

After getting out of Outlook and then going back in, the program could not find the .pst it was looking for. The program then shut down after I pointed it to the .pst I wanted it to open. However, Outlook was still showing on the taskbar as running. I could not change back the names of the .pst's because the operating system was indicating that the files were still in use. I tried moving the files, renaming the .pst's back to their original names, repairing Outlook, even reloaded Outlook 2003 from disk after uninstalling all of Office. Since I cannot get Outlook to stay open long enough to change the options or data management details, this problem of program shutdown recurs over and over.

Any suggestions out there? Thanks.

Your PST File can be up to 20Gigs in size and on a local computer you shouldn't see any ill effects from a PST that size.

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A couple of other observations. I took out all .pst's from their normal folder, to see if Outlook 2003 would try to create new ones. It did not create a new one, but still shut down right away after displaying all of the messages in the Inbox of the .pst that I wanted to see. At least Outlook did not show up in the taskbar.

I tried another experiment. I placed a .pst named "Outlook" [the standard name] in the folder where the program should look for it, and not only did Outlook shut down from the screen immediately, it left an icon in the taskbar, indicating the program was still running, just not displaying. When I clicked on the icon, it replied with the system message, " Outlook is not responding. If you are using an Exchange Server e-mail account, you can cancel pending server requests by clicking the Outlook icon in the notifications area, and then clicking Cancel Server Request on the shortcut menu." I have no idea where this "notifications area" is, nor do I know what the "shortcut menu" is.

Not sure if this is material to the problem or not, but I stayed connected to the mail server when doing these experiments.

The .pst I want Outlook to default to is 190 MB in size. The other .pst is 283 MB in size.

This post has been edited by Ever Learning: 02 October 2010 - 10:00 PM

You may have to repair Office 2003 to restore its functionality something you did broke it.

Thank you.

Came up with another, temporary solution. Opened a new profile, opened Outlook there, then imported the .pst I wanted to retain as my current one. Worked.