Microsoft Outlook 2003
AutoArchiving: An Overview
In general, AutoArchiving is a way to preserve old items in an area separate from your active folders. AutoArchiving makes your active folders more manageable and active items more accessible. You have many options with Outlook AutoArchiving: automatic archive, manual archive, or a combination of the two. Additionally, you can set AutoArchiving options folder by folder, thus customizing the process. This document will discuss some things to consider before selecting your AutoArchiving options.
Items That Can Be AutoArchived
Outlook AutoArchiving will preserve folder structure, so subfolders can also be archived. Contacts cannot be AutoArchived but can be manually archived. Items in the following folders can be AutoArchived:
- Calendar
- Deleted Items
- Drafts
- Inbox
- Journal
- Junk E-mail
- Notes
- Outbox
- Sent Items
- Tasks
Space and Quota Considerations
Whether you use AutoArchiving, manually archive items, or do not archive at all, your decision will impact your quota on one of the servers. The following is a list of considerations which may help you to decide how to address this issue.
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Archiving does not necessarily save space because items are being moved. If you elect to have Outlook delete certain items, then you will be freeing up space.
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Archiving reduces the amount of file space used on the Exchange Server, thus freeing up some of your quota on that server.
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Archiving transfers the items to your H: drive, thus using file space and impacting your quota on that drive. The archive file is permanent. After archiving at regular intervals for some time, the archive file can become quite large depending on how often you archive and how many items you have archived.
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Reviewing the archive file periodically will help you identify files that can be deleted or that should be transferred to a long-term storage media such as a CD-ROM, thus conserving space on your H: drive.
