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I issue this command to export the mailbox of a user:

New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox "user" -FilePath "\\server\share\user.pst"

After 2 minutes or so, this file have been generated: enter image description here

Notice the size of the export file, and now this is the actual size of the mailbox on the server as seen from outlook:

enter image description here

Where does this extra ~100MB in the export file comes from?

Jonathan Rioux
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3 Answers3

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It is likely the additional items that are exported, such as the recoverable deleted items (dumpster).

I would mount the .PST file in your outlook profile and check each folder to see exactly where the additional mail items are.

A mailbox export will export EVERYTHING within the mailbox, including items that aren't viewable to the user.

HostBits
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    It may also be related to message compression. I'm assuming that you'd lose that on a mailbox export. - http://sysadmin-talk.org/2010/07/exchange-2010-compression – joeqwerty Dec 17 '12 at 16:59
  • @joeqwerty ah, very interesting, I had not seen that before. I would imagine you'd lose the compression on an export too. – HostBits Dec 17 '12 at 17:08
  • Agreed. OP can check this with: Get-MailboxStatistics | Format-List StorageLimitStatus,TotalItemSize,TotalDeletedItemSize,ItemCount,DeletedItemCount – TheCleaner Dec 17 '12 at 17:19
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I have found the reason.

The export contains all the deleted and purged messages of the mailbox, even after the "Deleted Elements" have been emptied in outlook. So once I opened the archive into outlook, I saw all my emails that I have deleted and purged months ago.

That's a good thing I learnt, thanks to you guys!

Jonathan Rioux
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You can check using the below command:

Get-MailboxStatistics | Format-List StorageLimitStatus,TotalItemSize,TotalDeletedItemSize,ItemCount,DeletedItemCount

because Exported .pst includes deleted items.

Lawrence Horton
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