Access denied to Outlook 2003 pst file

[FalvinP]

I'm not sure where this should go, so I thought I'd put it underson general
questions.

I’m going to be reformatting and reinstalling Vista home premium. I use
Outlook 2003 for email. In doing research to retain my cuurent Outlook.pst
file, I did something, although I don’t know what I did.

When I open Outlook 2003 I get this message:

“Unable to open your default email folders. File access is denied. You do
not have the permission required to access the file:

C:\users\Fred\Appdata\Local\Miscrosoft\Outlook\Outlook.pstâ€

I can’t open Outlook 2003 at all, even if I try to open it as administrator.

As I live alone, and am the only person who uses this computer, my computer
is set up without having to log in. No other accounts have been created,
other than those created at installation.

I tried to get access back by going to the Outlook.pst file and right
clicking to properties. I then chose the security tab.

There are three groups or usernames shown there:

SYSTEM
Fred (Fred-PC\Fred)
Administrators (Fred-PC\Administrators)

Every level of permissions (Full control, Modify, Read and execute, read,
write, Special permissions) are checked in the “allow†column except for
special permissions. They are grayed out on this screen. When I click “editâ€
the checkmarks are still grayed out in the “allow†column. I can click the
“deny†column and put a check back into the “accept†column, but I didn’t
apply any changes for fear of messing things up further.

I do have a full backup of my hard drive, done yesterday, that I made with
Easy Gig II. I could restore the pst file from there, but I don’t know if
that would allow me to reuse that file.

Can anyone show me how to get back to where I was?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[FalvinP]

I have my problem solved.

I decided to just google the error message and found this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/258468

I looked at the outlook.pst file properties and discovered that I must have
accidentally clicked the "read only" attribute by mistake. Unchecking that
box solved the problem immediately.

I thought I'd post the resolution to my issue to help others who may be in
the same situation.

 

[Gordon]

No, more likely is that you saved the .pst file onto CD/DVD media -

Unlikely - the OP would not be able to remove the Read-Only attribute and
access the pst file if it was on a CD/DVD....(unless the CD/DVD had been
formatted for packet writing...)