OST is offline storage tables. PST is personal storage tables. Both work with MS Outlook and Exchange. However, there is a substantial difference between OST and PST, especially about how you can operate both. Also, there are certain pros and cons of both OST and PST. When you weigh the pros and cons, both OST and PST would emerge as beneficial exercises. Let us first explore what OST and PST are.
OST: Explained
OST or offline storage tables are offline folders that are created automatically by MS Exchange and MS Outlook. The offline storage folders store copies of everything that is in your Exchange or Outlook server. Imagine the emails you have in your MS Outlook inbox and outbox as well as the files and folders you have, including the attachments. All these will be found in your OST. Think of OST as your offline storage for all emails that are downloaded into the MS Outlook application running on your desktop, laptop, Windows phone or tablet.
Whenever you run MS Outlook or MS Exchange and you are connected to the internet, the applications will connect to the server and download emails, updates and other essential components. The MS Outlook and MS Exchange on your desktop, laptop, mobile or tablet will get synced. Thereon, even if you are offline, you can access the same emails, files and folders. You cannot send emails or receive emails from and to your OST. You can compose emails if you want and have them stored till the next time you connect to the internet. You can choose the option of auto send messages in your draft or outbox once you go online.
OST files are local copies of MS Exchange mailbox and typically contain emails, contacts, tasks and calendar entries. MS Outlook should be set in Cached mode for OST folders to function.
PST: Explained
PST or personal storage tables are personal folders, you can call them personal files, which are not automatically created or stored by MS Outlook or MS Exchange. The MS server doesn’t automatically create the folders and sync them whenever you are online. That is the principal difference between OST and PST. You would need to create the PST to store emails, calendar entries, contacts, attachments or files and folders as well as tasks. In matters of what you can store or have as backup, there isn’t much difference between OST and PST.
You can decide where you would want the PST to be located. It could be your computer’s hard drive, there can be an external hard drive, you could burn an optical disk or you can use memory cards and flash drives if you want.
Difference Between OST and PST
OST is an auto feature. PST has to be set up. OST takes all the backup and gets synced automatically. PST needs to be configured according to your needs. Both are effective backup strategies. OST is more in control of MS Outlook and MS Exchange, in other words Microsoft and how it wishes to change the rules. PST is in your control. Microsoft or Windows can dictate terms but you are more flexible in how you wish to store your files, what you wish to store and how you wish to transfer, if at all. Transferring backups from one system to another is easier with PST.
Initially, PST could be only 2 GB of data. You couldn’t keep more. Over the last ten years, the capping has gone up to 20 GB and counting. Today, OST and PST are equally stable. It wasn’t so in 2002. Both OST and PST work in tandem with MS servers. Hence, beyond the difference between OST and PST, there are useful similarities. For instance, if PST files are inaccessible or there is something wrong and the system has become unstable, then you can use Scanpst.exe utility to repair it. The process is easy and the instructions are self explained. OST files can also get corrupt and they can be scanned and repaired using the Scanost.exe utility. Both these utilities can be accessed using the ‘run’ or ‘search’ function in your system. Both OST files and PST files can be converted from one format to another. This will not affect the process in which you buildup your OST and PST. There are many third party software applications that can convert PST files to OST files and vice versa.
OST and PST are both important tools. PST allows you more choice. OST limits your choice but it is a default program that helps in securing a backup, even when you don’t intend to and hence can be of immense help should you lose data and want to regain access. You can control certain features of OST. You exert greater control over PST. Use both if you are on a Windows system and use MS Outlook and MS Exchange.
