What do you guys think about this?

**Khazad** · December 16th, 2004, 09:30 AM

That problem was not your fault at all, as it was mentioned before outlook pst files crap out at 2gb, it's his fauly for pushing the limit. What you could have done, however is created an archive pst file of all his archaic emails that he just has hanging around but doesn't really use anymore and moved most of his carp to that, and then copy a majorly reduced copy of the main pst file over. To go further with that you could burn the archived pst to a dvd for him to keep isn case he ever needs one of those messages.
That's the way I handle that situation anyway.

**meatwad** · December 16th, 2004, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by WebHead

I've also mentioned that I'd like to go through some training with them on proper email file management,.. but of course they won't listen to that either.

THIS is your company's problem. User's can piss and moan about their computer problems all day, but what you've seen and already explained to him (though he doesn't want to listen) is that the staff is no properly trained to operate the software. What you need to do is type up a proposal to your boss explaining that during some switchovers you discovered that some employees weren't properly using their software and that a training seminar or in house session would benefit everyone to prevent problems like that in the future.

**NooNoo** · December 16th, 2004, 11:53 AM

With people like this, I find analogies work best.

Ask him what car he has, then ask him for the volume of the trunk. Then say that his pst file is like his trunk, it has a finite size. If he does the smart alec reply about, ok I'll buy a lorry, then you can point out that a lorry is loaded one pallet at a time and each pallet has a finite ability to take a load.

People think computers can bend to their will - true, but only so far and the ability to bend to a will is directly linked to the to the budget

**WebHead** · December 16th, 2004, 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by CeeBee

I'm not dealing with Exchange, but with a Lotus Domino server.. anyway, I have users who think email should be archived forever. Fixed this in a very easy way, set a maximum database size on the server to 1GB and a warning at 800MB.. when they exceed 1GB they cannot send any more mail so they HAVE TO delete some.. or archive locally and save to CD if they really care about it. From what I remember Exchange has a limit on the mailbox size too... might be worth looking into...

This would not be an option for me. Basically they have become accustomed to using email as a quick and easy FTP client. In other words,.. attachments galore. I ask them to save the attachments locally and then delete emails, but then I get told that the computer should conform to their needs. One nice thing is that I moved out email over to an outside hosting. This essentially forces them to conform the hosting specifications (which helps me out a bit).

The biggest problem is this. Training needs to happen. Many of these users are old school engineers and I don't think ever had any formal Windows and/or Office training. But they don't want to listen to my advise. And if anything goes wrong they know they can just blame it on me.

**WebHead** · December 16th, 2004, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by Khazad

That problem was not your fault at all, as it was mentioned before outlook pst files crap out at 2gb, it's his fauly for pushing the limit. What you could have done, however is created an archive pst file of all his archaic emails that he just has hanging around but doesn't really use anymore and moved most of his carp to that, and then copy a majorly reduced copy of the main pst file over. To go further with that you could burn the archived pst to a dvd for him to keep isn case he ever needs one of those messages.
That's the way I handle that situation anyway.

Thats exactly what I tried to do. Except the PST blew up just after I attempted to move some emails into the new PST.

I hope Bill Gates burns in hell for creating this awful PST technology. It is the worst email file management system known to man.

**WebHead** · December 16th, 2004, 01:41 PM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

...People think computers can bend to their will - true, but only so far and the ability to bend to a will is directly linked to the to the budget

Yup. Those of us who actually "get it" understand this. Managers are a different animal though. They don't feel that they need to "get it". They just know that they can boss around the lowly IT tech until they get what they want. Or there are the ones who *think* they get it and keep trying to tell you how to do your job even though the things they say are wrong. Like one of my managers. He once set up a small lan at home and all of a sudden hes the resident computer expert and keeps telling me, "well why don't you just [fill in the blank]". And then no matter what I respond with, he thinks I don't know what I'm doing.

It's SUCH a thankless job.

**Stalemate** · December 16th, 2004, 01:45 PM

Then document your recommendations and their refusals.

You'll need them for when they come hunting for you after the crash/data loss/corruption.

Then, explain to them the difference between the lesser amount having been spent on prevention (training on best practices) instead of the larger amount on repairs.

Put a dollar amount on it.

It will help them understand better.