What is a Outlook Personal Storage Table (.pst) file? What data can I store in a Outlook Personal Storage Table (.pst) file?

A Personal Storage Table (.pst) file, also called as Personal Folders File, is a data file used by Microsoft to store copies of messages, calendar events, and other items within Microsoft software such as Microsoft Exchange Client, Windows Messaging, and Microsoft Outlook.

There are two different formats used by Microsoft for .pst files:

• Outlook 2002 and earlier .pst format: This .pst file format uses ANSI character set and encoding. Obviously, it does not support double-byte characters like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters. It has a file size limit of 2 GB because it is using 32-bit address pointers.
• Outlook 2003 and onward .pst format: This .pst file format uses Unicode (UTF-16 little-endian) character set and encoding. It does support double-byte characters like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters. Its file size can be up to 20 GB because it is using 64-bit address pointers.

⇒ What Is an Outlook Data File (.pst)

⇐ What Version of Outlook Am I Using?

⇑ General Questions on Microsoft Outlook

⇑⇑ MS Outlook - Frequently Asked Questions