Question : User has 6GB PST file (archive.pst), how do I break into smaller pieces?

I know that if you have a PST file that is approaching the 2GB PST file size limit (2GB limit for Office 2003) that you can create a new PST file from within Outlook and then just drag and drop e-mails from the larger PST file to the new PST file. You then run the "Compact Now" process on the larger PST file and it will compact the file, eliminating the blank space that those copied e-mails were taking up.

However, what do you do when the file is so large that Outlook locks up once launched? Is there a way to break up the PST file without going into Outlook?

Answer : User has 6GB PST file (archive.pst), how do I break into smaller pieces?

What happened was that 6GB PST file was on the client's server and not on their local machine. Once I removed that data file Outlook opened fine, but now I still needed to transfer the e-mails from that PST into smaller ones. So, I copied the 6GB PST to her local machine, added it to the "Data Files" list under Mail in Control Panel and then opened Outlook. Outlook opened and then I dragged and dropped the e-mails to another PST file that I made (New->Outlook Data File) and then Compacted the PST file.