W7 - 5 'Previous Versions' of Outlook.pst have same file Size

Hi all,

I'm looking at the "Properties" dialog of several 'Previous Versions' of my Outlook.pst file over a 5 day period where there were 5 different Restore Points that included this file, but what is confusing me is that all 5 of these 'Previous Versions' of my Outlook.pst file are the same exact Size: 4,953,351,168 bytes. I am a heavy Outlook user so I can't understand how the files could be the same size over this period, besides which, if I understand 'Previous Versions' functionality correctly, files are included in 'Previous Versions' only if they have changed (I might understand 2 files having the same size as a fluke, but 5?). So my questions are:

1) How can these files be the same exact Size?
2) If files are included in 'Previous Versions' only if they have changed, shouldn't those changes be evident in the file Size?

Thanks,

Jeff

Brink said:

Hello Jeff,

From your screenshot, the previous versions of your Outlook.pst file were also created from when a restore point was created. It wouldn't be uncommon to have multiple previous version copies of the Outlook.pst file with the exact same size say when restore points were automatically created before installing Windows Updates, or if you manually created a restore point at these times.

Previous Versions - Restore Files and Folders

Thanks for posting, Brink. Given that the 5 Restore points were made over a 5 day period, I would have thought the file size would have been changing due to my Outlook activity during the interim periods.

However, I found out elsewhere:

1. An Outlook PST file will essentially expand to the biggest size that it ever achieved. Even though you may modify/delete e-mail within it after that, it will never shrink back down again unless you utilize the compact utility. As a result, it may stay at that size for quite some time until it actually needs to expand again.

2. Based upon 1) above, adding and/or removing e-mail will change the modification date of the PST file without changing the file size itself.

Jeff