Microsoft Outlook provides storage for email folders, email messages, their attachments, contacts, tasks, calendar items and so on.  If Outlook is installed with the default settings, all the folders are contained within a single file named as Outlook.pst. The default location of Outlook PST is:

%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

The data in the PST file can be encrypted in three different ways to protect data.

High encryption: It is strongest mode of encryption in which PST files are more difficult to hack, to compress, and to maintain.

Compressible encryption: It is the Outlooks default setting, in which PST file is compressed with the tools like ZIP.

No Encryption: In which Outlook stores email data as it is.

Transferring or migrating the Outlook from one PC to another or from one OS to another, looks like a simple process, but you have to ensure proper backup before you migrate Outlook . You must be very careful about the import and export locations, means the Outlook files must be imported/ copied from its default location of one PC/ OS and must be exported/ pasted to the default location of another PC/ OS. In this scenario, lack of user knowledge of migrating Outlook might lead to the .pst file loss. Microsoft does not store absolutely all of Outlook’s settings and information in PST files, so if you are migrating from one PC to another, then you have to move other information’s  like Toolbar and menu settings called as Outcmd.dat and the default location is C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook, Signatures which contains a bunch of sub-directories and files with the information and the default location is C:\users\Username\appdata. You may end with the PST file loss, if you do any mistake while migrating Microsoft Outlook . Viruses or malwares can affect the PST file by creating the duplicate of the original PST file and at the time of migration you may import these duplicate files, resulting in PST file inaccessible in newer migrated Outlook. Because of the above mentioned reasons or because of any other reason, if you feel it’s difficult for you to migrate Outlook by your self,  you do not have to be afraid of your PST file, since you can migrate and backup the PST file more safely using good third party utility software such as “Remo Outlook Backup and Migrate” software.

Remo Outlook Backup and Migrate software, migrate all your Outlook data including PST files and all other Outlook items like RSS feeds, settings, rules etc between different environments using Migrate Outlook software. It schedules the backup on a daily, weekly or monthly basis and one main feature of this software is that it provides password protection where you can compress or split your backup file. You can download the demo version of this software free. Using this demo version you can migrate Outlook data and settings from older version to a newer version of Outlook or from Windows XP / Vista to Windows 7. Later you can buy the original licensed version and save complete Outlook data.

All your email messages, contacts (personal or professional), appointments, tasks, calendars, and almost every other aspect of your life is stored in Microsoft Outlook. To ensure that you do not lose all this significant information that is stored in the form of a pst file on the hard disk in case of a crash or some other catastrophe, it is always good to have backup copies of the Personal Folders (.pst) files.

Email backup can be done by the default options provided by the Outlook or by using thired party utilities. Simple way to Backup or copy Outlook emails, contacts and other related data is listed in the below steps.

To create a copy of your email, calendar, tasks, contacts and other information in Outlook for backup manually:

• In Windows Explorer, go to location where your Outlook folder is stored.
• Select all files with the extension “.pst”
• Ensure that your selection includes “outlook.pst” and “archive.pst”.
• From the menu, select either Edit or Copy to copy the selected pst files.
• Select a folder in which you want to store the backup copies for future use.
• If possible, copy them to another computer, or a removable disk like USB drive or external hard drive, or at least on a different hard drive i.e. a secure location.
• Now paste all the copied .pst files to the selected backup location

One more way to do this is to select the pst file in Outlook and click on export and save them in a different location. Now you can easily recover deleted pst file from the available Outlook Email Backup.