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Migration
How to move your mailbox data from
where it is, to where you want it.
If your mailbox is currently on another
Exchange server, migration is a two-step process. First
you copy everything to an Outlook Data File. These files
are also known as a Personal Folder files, or pst files,
because the file extension is .pst. Then you copy
everything from the pst file to the new Exchange server.
This page will explain the details of that process. See
Exchange to
Exchange below.
If you've been using a traditional POP3
service, and your mailbox data is currently in Outlook
on your computer, it's even easier. You can drag and
drop some or all of that data to the Exchange server
mailbox, or view it in Outlook right alongside the data
in your server-based mailbox. See POP to Exchange below.
If you've been using Outlook Express,
AOL, or some other email software, the first thing you
need to do is the necessary export / import to get
everything into Outlook. Then it's just like the POP to
Exchange scenario, you can drag and drop some or all of
your stuff to your Exchange server mailbox, or view it
in Outlook alongside the data in the Exchange
server-based mailbox. See Outlook Express to
Exchange below.
Part 1: Prepare current Exchange
configuration
Depending on how fast your network
connection is to the old Exchange server, it might help
to prepare for this process by configuring Outlook to
work offline. When you copy stuff from your server-based
folders to the local machine-based folders in your pst
file, everything has to come over the network, unless
you're working offline. If you're working offline, this
step will go at the speed of your machine instead of the
speed of your network connection. For step-by-step with
screen shots, see Working Offline.
Streamline and speed this process by
reducing the size of your current mailbox. To find the
size of your current Exchange mailbox, right click the
Outlook Today icon, choose Properties, and click the
Folder size button.
Emptying the deleted items folder is
obvious, but you may not have considered some of the
tips and tricks in our tech support page on the subject;
Storage Limits.
The
tips and tricks section of that page
shows you how to add a size column to your inbox view,
to sort messages by size and find the biggest ones.
Finally, add an Outlook Data File (pst
file) to your current, already working, Exchange-based
Outlook profile. In Outlook XP, it's as easy as File
menu, New, Outlook Data File. See Personal
Folders for detailed instructions. Remember the
path, where you create this file, because you'll need to
find it on your disk later.
Part 2: Copy data to pst file
You need to be able to see the folder
list. From the Outlook View menu, choose Folder List if necessary.
Outlook Data Files are limited to 2 GB
by design. If your mailbox is larger than that, (see
Part 1) you will need to split it into multiple pst
files. If your mailbox is large, or if your network is
slow and you're not working offline, you might want to
do this in stages, one or more folders at a time.
In order to copy the entire mailbox all
at once, right click the Outlook Today icon and drag it
with the right mouse button, dropping it on the icon for
the new Outlook Data File you just created. Choose copy,
not move, from the shortcut menu. This will copy
everything to the pst file on your local machine.
If you get an error message, try copying
just some of the folders instead of all of them.
Continue to copy just the folders that will copy until
you narrow down the source of trouble and the particular
folders or items that don't want to go. It often helps
to switch the inbox view to the basic view named
Messages, do not use the By Sender view. That is, View
menu, Current View, Messages.
To verify a successful copy operation,
right click any folder in the pst file, choose
properties, and compare the size of the folder and
number of items to the same folder in the server-based mailbox.
Once you're satisfied that you have all
the necessary data in the pst file, you're ready to
proceed. Now is a good time to make a copy of the pst
file for safe keeping. Burn it to CD-ROM.
Part 3: Prepare your new Exchange configuration
When you create the new Exchange based
profile, it must be a new profile, started from scratch
with just Exchange in it, and no data files. See Outlook
Profiles for screen shots and step-by-step. The
Outlook Data File must be added later, after the
Exchange configuration is up and running.
Here again, it may be useful to
configure Outlook for Working Offline and start Outlook in
the offline mode. This way, the initial copying of data
will go at the speed of your machine instead of the
speed of your network connection.
From the Outlook File menu, choose Open,
Outlook Data File, and locate the pst file or files you created previously.
Choose Folder List from the View menu if
necessary, and verify that you can see both the server
based folders, and the folders in the pst file on your local machine.
Let's review. At this point, the new
Exchange profile is up and running, set for offline use,
and started in the offline mode. In the Folder List, you
can see your new server-based folders and the folders in
your pst file or files. Now you're ready to drag and
drop items and folders from the pst file to the
server-based mailbox, right?
Wrong. There's a catch. The server-based
mailbox already has an Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, and
other folders. These primary, default folders in the
server-based mailbox cannot be deleted or replaced. For
example, no matter how hard you try, you can't drag the
Calendar folder from your pst file into the server-based
mailbox, and make it become your primary calendar
folder. It will become an additional calendar folder,
and the appointments in it will not show up on your
schedule, when your co-workers check your availability.
To work around this issue, you have to
copy items, not entire folders, from the pst file.
That's easy enough in the case of the inbox. Simply
select one item in the pst file's inbox, and press
Ctrl+A to select all. The Calendar folder is more
difficult. You need to select all the items in the
Calendar folder in the pst file, and copy those items
into the existing Calendar folder in the server-based
mailbox. But how?
Back to the trusty View menu. View,
Current View, Events, will display the items in your
Calendar folder, in a way that allows you to easily
select all of them for copying. The By-Category view is
also good for this purpose, and it displays holidays,
which might not have been added to your new Calendar yet.
Part 4: Copy data to new server
If you've read this far, you probably
know what to do next. Select the various folders, and
just the items from the Inbox, Calendar and other
folders in the pst file, and drag them with the right
mouse button into the server-based folders.
Do this while working offline, and it
will go at the speed of your machine. After you finish
copying, press F9 or choose Tools, Send / Receive, Send
and Receive All, to begin the synchronization process
that will actually upload everything to the new server.
If there's a lot of data, you might want
to do this at night, when you can step away from the
computer for a while. You would be smart to do a few
folders at a time, instead of one big long
synchronization, because if your network connection
times out during a synchronization, you might have to start over.
Consider Your Options
Obviously you don't have to copy
everything from your pst file to the new server-based
mailbox. Some of it may not be worth the space it takes
up on the server. Just remember some of the advantages
of having stuff on the server. You can access it from
various machines in different locations, even using
Outlook Web Access. You can share things with colleagues
through the delegates features. You can count on
us backing it up and keeping it safe for you. See Deleted
Item Recovery for a discussion of backup related
issues. If you choose to keep some data locally, making
a backup copy of the pst file is imperative.
==this section being written now==
==this section being written now==
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