You can archive data not only automatically but also manually—for example, before leaving on vacation or when you need to move your files to a new machine.

To archive data manually, perform these steps:

1)  Choose File, Archive.

2)  Select one of the following options in the Archive dialog box (see screenshot below)

3)  Archive All Folders According To Their AutoArchive Settings Use this option to archive all folders using preset AutoArchive settings. When you select this option, the remaining options in this dialog box become unavailable. Go to final step.

4)  Archive This Folder And All Subfolders Select this option if you want to archive individual folders and their subfolders. Go to final step.

5)  Select the folder you want to archive. If the folder includes subfolders, those folders are archived as well.

6)  In the Archive Items Older Than drop-down list, specify the latest date from which Outlook should start archiving data. For instance, if you want to archive data older than today’s date, select that date. Otherwise, all your data in the selected folder will not be archived.

7)  If you have specified that a folder should not be archived automatically but you want to archive this folder now, select the Include Items With “Do Not AutoArchive” Checked check box.

8)  To change the personal folders file that will store your archive, click Browse and then choose the file and folder where the archive will be stored. You also can type the path and file name in the  Archive File box if you know this information.

10)  Click OK

11)  Outlook begins archiving your data. If the folder contains a large amount of data, archiving might take several minutes (or hours, depending on the speed of your computer and other factors). You can watch the status of the archiving by looking at the right side of Outlook’s status bar. When the process has finished, the Archive.pst file (or whichever archive file you specified in step above) will contain the data Outlook just archived