PST FILE ARCHIVING
According to certain aspects, systems and methods for archiving and/or backing up PST files or other mail or calendar data, or the like (“off-line mail data”) are provided. Off-line mail data can be searched for in a client computer system, a copy of which may be transferred to secondary storage. Further, emails, contacts, calendar data, and/or the like (e.g., Microsoft Outlook data) contained in the transferred off-line mail data may be extracted, wherein it is determined whether copies of the data already exist backup data. Off-line mail data that already exists in backup can be deleted from the PST file. Following back-up of the off-line mail data, the backed up file may be deleted from the client system and/or the creation of future off-line mail files may be disabled.
1 . A method of archiving mail data, the method comprising:
creating a first secondary copy of a mail data file on a secondary storage device of one or more secondary storage devices,
wherein the mail data file comprises a plurality of mail items organized together into a formatted file, the mail data file is associated with a specific user, and the mail data file is separate from on-line mail data that resides on at least one primary storage device and that is associated with a mail server application;
creating a second secondary copy of at least some of the on-line mail data on a secondary storage device of the one or more secondary storage devices; and
with a computing device that interfaces with the secondary storage device containing the first secondary copy,
reading the first secondary copy;
electronically unpackaging the first secondary copy to enumerate the plurality of mail items in the mail data file; and
subsequent to said electronically unpackaging, for respective mail items of the plurality of mail items:
electronically comparing the respective mail item to on-line mail data that is stored in the second secondary copy to determine whether a copy of the respective mail item also exists in the second secondary copy; and
in response to said determining that a copy of the respective mail item also exists in the second secondary copy, removing the mail item from the first secondary copy.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the mail data file is a PST file stored on a client computing device.
3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to said removing the mail item from the first secondary copy, adding in the first secondary copy a reference to the existing copy of the respective mail item in the second secondary copy.
4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising adding or updating metadata associated with the existing copy of the respective mail item in the second secondary copy to indicate the first secondary copy in which the removed mail item was included.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said creating a first secondary copy of a mail data file comprises detecting the mail data file associated with the specific user on a client computing device.
6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
creating a filtered representation of the first secondary copy.
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the filtered representation comprises one or more mail items in the first secondary copy that meet filtering criteria.
8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to determining for all of the plurality of mail items that a copy of the respective mail item also exists in the second secondary copy, removing the first secondary copy on the secondary storage device.
9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
subsequent to said removing the first secondary copy on the secondary storage device:
removing the mail data file in primary storage; and
disabling creation of another mail data file associated with the specific user in the primary storage.
10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a merged mail data array for the specific user, on a secondary storage device of the one or more secondary storage devices, based at least in part on a mail data array and an on-line mail data array,
wherein the mail data array comprises mail items in the first secondary copy and the on-line mail data array comprises mail items associated with the specific user in the second secondary copy.
11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
comparing the mail items in the mail data array and the mail items in the on-line mail data array; and
in response to determining that a mail item exists in both the mail data array and the on-line mail data array, including a single copy of the mail item in the merged mail data array.
12 . A data storage system configured to archive mail data, the data storage system comprising:
one or more secondary storage devices;
a computer system comprising one or more hardware computing devices configured to:
create a first secondary copy of a mail data file on a secondary storage device of the one or more secondary storage devices,
wherein the mail data file comprises a plurality of mail items organized together into a formatted file, the mail data file is associated with a specific user, and the mail data file is separate from on-line mail data that resides on at least one primary storage device and that is associated with a mail server application;
create a second secondary copy of at least some of the on-line mail data on a secondary storage device of the one or more secondary storage devices;
read the first secondary copy;
electronically unpackage the first secondary copy to enumerate the plurality of mail items in the mail data file; and
subsequent to said electronically unpackaging, for respective mail items of the plurality of mail items:
electronically compare the respective mail item to on-line mail data that is stored in the second secondary copy to determine whether a copy of the respective mail item also exists in the second secondary copy; and
in response to said determining that a copy of the respective mail item also exists in the second secondary copy, remove the mail item from the first secondary copy.
13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the mail data file is a PST file stored on a client computing device.
14 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the computer system is further configured to:
in response to said removing the mail item from the first secondary copy, add in the first secondary copy a reference to the existing copy of the respective mail item in the second secondary copy.
15 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the computer system is further configured to:
create a filtered representation of the first secondary copy, wherein the filtered representation comprises one or more mail items in the first secondary copy that meet filtering criteria.
16 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the computer system is further configured to:
in response to determining for all of the plurality of mail items that a copy of the respective mail item also exists in the second secondary copy, remove the first secondary copy on the secondary storage device.
17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the computer system is further configured to:
subsequent to said removing the first secondary copy on the secondary storage device:
remove the mail data file in primary storage; and
disable creation of another mail data file associated with the specific user in the primary storage.
18 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the computer system is further configured to:
generate a merged mail data array for the specific user, on a secondary storage device of the one or more secondary storage devices, based at least in part on a mail data array and an on-line mail data array,
wherein the mail data array comprises mail items in the first secondary copy and the on-line mail data array comprises mail items associated with the specific user in the second secondary copy.
19 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the computer system is further configured to:
compare the mail items in the mail data array and the mail items in the on-line mail data array; and
in response to determining that a mail item exists in both the mail data array and the on-line mail data array, include a single copy of the mail item in the merged mail data array.
20 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed cause computer hardware to perform operations defined by the computer-readable instructions, the computer-readable instructions configured to:
create a first secondary copy of a mail data file on a secondary storage device of one or more secondary storage devices,
wherein the mail data file comprises a plurality of mail items organized together into a formatted file, the mail data file is associated with a specific user, and the mail data file is separate from on-line mail data that resides on at least one primary storage device and that is associated with a mail server application;
create a second secondary copy of at least some of the on-line mail data on a secondary storage device of the one or more secondary storage devices;
read the first secondary copy;
electronically unpackage the first secondary copy to enumerate the plurality of mail items in the mail data file; and
subsequent to said electronically unpackaging, for respective mail items of the plurality of mail items:
electronically compare the respective mail item to on-line mail data that is stored in the second secondary copy to determine whether a copy of the respective mail item also exists in the second secondary copy; and
in response to said determining that a copy of the respective mail item also exists in the second secondary copy, remove the mail item from the first secondary copy.