Microsoft Outlook is a most popular and widely used personal information manager and email client from Microsoft Corporation. It is the part of Microsoft Office suit of products. You can also use Outlook in combination of Microsoft Exchange Server to create a messaging and collaborative environment. MS Outlook stores all of your critical emails, contacts, notes, schedules, journal and other data in PST (Personal Folder) file. In other words, you can say that PST is the repository of all Outlook data. This file has an limitation in Microsoft Outlook 2002 and earlier versions that it can not grow more than 2 GB. When it reaches 2 GB size, the performance gets decreased and you might encounter PST file corruption. At this point, you need to Split PST File using appropriate tools.

In a practical scenario, when you attempt to start Microsoft Outlook and attempt to open the PST file, you might come across below given error message:

"Errors have been detected in the file . Quit all mail-enabled applications, and then use the Inbox Repair Tool."

This issue takes place when PST file exceeds the size limit of 2 GB. Whenever the PST file grows more than 2 GB, you would not be able to start Outlook and open PST file. You might not add new data to it. This issue is called oversized PST problem. However, it is suggested to use Inbox Repair tool or Scanpst.exe to correct this problem, but it does not work in such circumstances. When this problem occurs, you might face any of the following situations:

1-Slow performance of Microsoft Outlook, while creating, searching and moving items due to large number or large size of times in PST files.

2-Outlook crashes while working on it or you come across a number of error messages and PST file corruption scenarios.

Microsoft Outlook does not contain any inbuilt tool to recover from oversized PST problem and make the file accessible. However, Microsoft offers an external utility as a makeshift. This utility is known as pst2gb.exe. It can restore the PST file to a usable state. To use this tool for truncating PST file, go through below steps:

3-Download this tool from Microsoft Download Center.

4-Extract 2gb 152.exe file in an empty folder. See the following 5 files

-Msstdfmt.dll

-Msvbvm60.dll

-Pst2gb.exe

-Readme.rtf

-Readme.txt

5-Run pst2gb.exe tool, click Browse for choosing oversized PST file and click Open.

6-Click Create, choose name and the location of truncated PST file, which you like to create and click on Save button.

7-Type the amount of data, which you like to truncate in Personal Folder file. There isn't a correct amount, which you use. You could get best result if you truncate 20 to 25 MB, but you might have to cut less or more.

8-Run Inbox Repair Tool on truncated file.

9-Open the resulted file in Microsoft Outlook.

10-If the truncated file does not open successfully in Microsoft Outlook, you need to go through the same process again from beginning.

Although, this tool might help you sort out your problem, but it is not safe in any case. When you use this utility, it creates a truncated copy of PST file. This copy does not contain all of your original data as the program cuts user defined amount of the data from selected PST file. It means some messages are missing or unavailable in recovered copy.

At this point, you need a tool, which can Split PST into different smaller files, without playing with the integrity of your data. This is best possible with the help of third party applications, which are known particularly designed to divide an oversized and unusable PST file into several files and make your precious data accessible again.

These applications are known as Split PST software. They split large sized PST file into several individual PST files, which could be used as individual file by simply importing them into Microsoft Outlook and creating a new Outlook profile or using it with same profile. These software Split PST File on a defined criteria either date or email address.

Stellar Phoenix PST File Splitter is the most influential and comprehensive tool to easily split oversized PST file and make it accessible through MS Outlook. It supports Microsoft Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000. This software is compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista, 2003, XP, 2000 and NT4 (SP6).