Hello Chris,
I've used the Perl script for counting messages in a .pst file and found it extremely useful – while using it I cross-referenced the results by importing the .pst file and counting manually. I found that the script total was generally giving a result that was 2-3% higher, would you happen to have any idea why?
Chris,
Have you done any more work on this project? I went to the Google code site (and will go back), and was looking for something that described what was there…unfortunately, I don't see anything that describes the code.
Anything you could provide would be immensely helpful…thanks. This is a much needed capability within the community.
Hi Harlan,
Sorry for the late response I have not been on FF recently. I haven't any time recently to extend the code as I have been working on other projects. What do you need describing? I know the code is quite lengthy but it simply parses the nbt/bbt structure of a PST file and counts the number of message objects, the plan was to extend it to count the number of attachments etc. however I just haven't had the time. If you need anything specific explaining please let me know and I'll do my best to remember what I've coded!
Hello Chris,
I've used the Perl script for counting messages in a .pst file and found it extremely useful – while using it I cross-referenced the results by importing the .pst file and counting manually. I found that the script total was generally giving a result that was 2-3% higher, would you happen to have any idea why?
Hi Michael,
The script written to count the number of "message objects" described by Microsoft
Message object A set of properties that represents an e-mail message, appointment, contact, or other type of personal-information-management object. In addition to its own properties, a Message object contains recipient properties that represent the addressees to which it is addressed, and an attachments table that represents any files and other Message objects that are attached to it.
So instead of just counting the messages it will count any appointments, contacts etc. I'm not sure there is a quick fix around this without de-obfuscating the message layer, and that is the part where my technical skills ended. I do plan to revisit the code, and I may rewrite it in C# as this may be easier.
I tend to use this script to give an indication of numbers, if I have a large number of pst files to analyse, hope this helps.