Friday 4 April 2014

How to Check PST File Format

Five month ago, I was working on my Outlook PST file and found that my PST file format is not supportive and I needed to check its format and I found difficult to check PST file format. 

So here are few steps to check PST file format version,By that user can distinguish about the storage format of PST file, whether files are stored in ANSI or Unicode format.


What is ANSI and Unicode ?

ANSI Stands for American National Standards Institute. It is an encoding system for a page on Microsoft Window. It encodes page in ANSI format that can only understand by system. ANSI format support by Microsoft Outlook 2002 and before versions.

Unicode stands for Unique Universal and Uniform character enCoding. Unicode is an advanced version of ANSI. Unicode contains new features that make it more efficient. Unicode support by Microsoft Outlook 2003 and after versions.

Steps to Check PST File Format

First Method:

Open MicroSoft Outlook

Click on “File” menu, then select “Data File Management”


Double Click on “Personal Folder”



When Format is Personal Folder File or Outlook Data File then file format is 
"Unicode"


When Format is Personal Folder File(97-2002) or Outlook Data File (97-2002) 
then file format is "ANSI"


Second Method:

Go to “Control Panel”, and click on “Mail icon”


Select “Data Files”


Click “Personal Folder” twice


Format is Outlook Data File or Personal Folder File, then "Unicode" file format


Format is Outlook Data File (97-2002) or Personal Folder File (97-2002) then "ANSI" file format