Exchange EDB Converter

Exchange Server is known to offer a brilliant and fault-tolerant platform for intra-organizational communication. The database of Exchange Server is divided into two types of stores: Private Store to hold user mailboxes and the Public Store to save shared messages, posts, and other data within organization. Entire database get saved in EDB file and to separate the type of data that the file holds, it is categorized as priv.edb and pub.edb.

User mailboxes of Exchange Server comprises of emails, contacts, calendars, tasks, journals and other folders where MS Outlook acts as a client to read what is saved on the Server. Nevertheless, it is important to understand that there are two types of files that get created in Outlook:

OST (Offline Storage Table): OST file is the repository of mailboxes when Outlook is configured with Exchange Server.

PST (Personal Storage Table): PST is the data file of Outlook when it is configured with POP3 or IMAP Server.

If for any reason there is need to archive Exchange database or to access it in absence of network, the best option is to move data into Outlook PST file. When we talk about uninterrupted mail flow even when Server is down or unavailable, the first option that comes in mind is to move contacts from Exchange to Outlook PST. This is because any type of communication is impossible without contacts.

Using MS Outlook as a medium, it is possible to migrate contacts from single mailbox to PST file format. Here is the general process that can be followed for the same.

  1. Open Import/Export Wizard of Outlook and in the window that pop up, chose the option “Export to a file”. Click Next.
  2. Select the option “Personal Folder File (.pst)” in the Export to a file wizard.
  3. Click on “Browse” button to select a location where the resultant PST file should be saved. You can also add instruction to remove duplicates or allow moving duplicates to the PST file. Click Next.
  4. Select the folders from the selected mailbox that are to be exported to Outlook PST file. If there are some sub-folders for the Contacts folders, they can be included by enabling the check box for "Include Sub-Folders"

This process is successful to move contacts from Exchange to Outlook PST but remember that migration from single mailbox at a tim