Kenneth is not alone. Timothy Benz asks a similar question:

I have a user that is using Outlook 2003. She is a marketing person and saves everything. Her .pst file is 4.2GB. When she opens Outlook, it says that it need to be checked because it was shut down incorrectly, or something to that effect.

If she had Outlook 2000 before and upgraded does the .pst file upgrade also? If not, is there step that need to be taken to convert it from the old format to the new?

We've covered the .pst question over and over and over and over again. We ran two articles on these very questions back in November:

What to do when your .pst file is too big
Microsoft has a 2GB size limit on the Outlook personal folders (.pst) and offline folders (.ost) file types [for Outlook versions prior to Outlook 2003]. Once the folder size reaches or goes beyond that size limit the file will not be useable even if you delete items. This article has some tips for when you take your personal folders into uncharted territory.

You can read this article at http://www.outlookpower.com/issues/issue200511/00001669001.html.

More thoughts on huge .pst files (and what to do about them)
In the previously mentioned article, our OutlookPower Answer Team guru Francine Otterson gave guidance about .pst files growing to about 2GB. Our own editorial staff decided to add some "knowledge" to the article by pointing out that a Microsoft Knowledge Base article showed how Outlook 2003 could take your .pst file to 20GB. Ah, but a little knowledge is dangerous. In this follow-up article, we provide some important cautions

You can read this article at http://www.outlookpower.com/issues/issue200511/00001673001.html.

Those two articles should keep you busy for a little while, at least.

Michelle LaBrosse is the founder and Chief Cheetah of Cheetah Learning. In 2006, the Project Management Institute selected Michelle as one of the 25 most influential women in project management, one of only two women selected from the training and education industry. Michelle is a graduate of the Harvard Business School's Owner & President Management program for entrepreneurs, and is the author of Cheetah Project Management and Cheetah Negotiations. To contact Michelle and learn more about Cheetah Learning, visit http://www.cheetahlearning.com.