#autoarchive

AutoArchiving will remove files from the server thus freeing-up space, and save them to a local disk. Full details are as follows:

Setting up AutoArchive

In MS Outlook 2003, you can configure Auto-Archive in menu [ Tools: Options ]

Go to the "Other" tab

Under the Auto Archive section click the "AutoArchive..." button

Adjust the settings accordingly; choose to MOVE old items (to an archive.PST file) rather than delete them, and apply the settings to all folders once done.

For the "Move old items to" setting, please choose to save the PST to an external drive. You can find these in any computer store, or online:

USB sticks

External hard drives

Anything up from 16 GB will likely be useful for your backups in general.

Click OK on each of the windows to come out of there.

Manually performing an AutoArchive (first time, for example)

Go to menu [ File : Archive ... ]

Select "Archive all folders according to their AutoArchive settings"

Click OK

What this will do

AutoArchive REMOVES the emails from the server and places them in the PST file you specified.

You will be able to access old emails in Outlook under the Archive Folders, as long as the PST file is accessible.

If for some reason Outlook cannot later find the PST file (started Outlook without the USB drive available, or starting Outlook on a different computer), choose menu [ File : Open : Outlook Data File ] and locate the PST file

The consequence of this move is that:

if you were using Outlook from a different location, that version of Outlook will not see the AutoArchived emails until you choose to open the Outlook Data File/PST file (as just above)

if you use the Outlook Web Access site (through a web browser), you will not see the AutoArchived emails. The OWA site cannot access PST files.

to access the old emails in the PST file, you will need MS Outlook (full version, not Outlook Express)