Cyclic Redundancy Error - Outlook 2003

J

John Brandt

Just bought a new box and upgraded to Office 2003. I was singing the
praises of MS particularly for the updates to Outlook when all of a
sudden it crashed and burned. I've recovered from the blow out but
still do not know what caused it. Thus I am moving slowly to make sure
it does not happen again. Here is the process, symptoms, and "what I
did."

The new box is a Hp pavilion 367c, P-4 2.8HT running Office 2003. Also
running NAV/PFW as well as Cloudmark SpamNet. Latest versions of each.

Copied outlook.pst from old computer which was running Office 2000
With some creative problem solving on my part, I figured how to import
the pst file. Everything working like a charm, all of my contacts and
saved messages appeared and I started to work on setting up POP
accounts (two for now); rules and signature file. I set some rules to
move incoming mail to various folders since the old rules did not come
with the import. I even spent some time creating some new contacts and
one distribution list.

All was humming along great for 3-4 days when all hell broke loose.

I had just replied to a new e-mail and clicked send. HD started
spinning, Outlook appeared to be trying to send and receive,
eventually choked and I received an error statement that indicated
Outlook could not locate or open Outlook.pst and ended with "Cyclic
redundancy error." My interpretation was that I had somehow corrupted
the Outlook.pst file. This put Outlook into a cycle and it timed out.

From that point on, Outlook became basically useless. Eventually I was
not able to even open an e-mail.

I tried a basic detect and repair and that solved nothing.

Ran detect and repair a second time, using the "return to default"
settings and this fixed the problem. But all contacts, rules, account
and settings were deleted. I looked and discovered there were now two
outlook.pst files - outlook.pst and outlook1.pst. The software was now
pointing to outlook1.

I managed to re-import the old pst file from the old computer a second
time and recovered my contact sans the ones I had recently entered. I
also have re-set the accounts, signature file and now slowly started
to create new rules. But I am afraid it will crash again.

Any idea what might have happened? I search KB to see if there was any
reference to this error - none. Have read through the headers for
messages in this NG and found quite a few that dealt with the
importing of pst file (hey Bill - looks like the system for migrating
from older versions of Outlook to newer ones could use some serious
work)

Is there a way to backup the files so I don't lose any more data?

Many thanks.

John Brandt
Augusta, Maine USA
 
N

neo [mvp outlook]

a CRC error means that the file corrupted. this could be due to a weak spot
on the hard drive or antivirus trying to do something to the pst file at the
same instance as outlook. try excluding *.pst files from being scanned by
Norton Antivirus.

If it happens again, try running a chkdsk against the drive your pst file is
on. If it has bad clusters, take up a conversation with HP since you stated
it is a new box.
 
J

John Brandt

n Fri, 23 Jan 2004 20:14:57 -0800, "neo [mvp outlook]"
a CRC error means that the file corrupted. this could be due to a weak spot
on the hard drive or antivirus trying to do something to the pst file at the
same instance as outlook. try excluding *.pst files from being scanned by
Norton Antivirus.

If it happens again, try running a chkdsk against the drive your pst file is
on. If it has bad clusters, take up a conversation with HP since you stated
it is a new box.


Thanks for the response. I've not used chkdsk for years thinking it
was a vestige of DOS days (as a matter of fact it is) and would not
work on Win98+ O/S. It does run on XP - apparently, and I did run it.
Looks like there are some corrupted files but it told me I need to run
it with a switch to fix. I hesitate without knowing the ramifications
of this.

I used SCANDISK and the defrag on my W98 system faily regularly. I see
XP has the defrag but no scandisk.

Suggestions - advice on this.

jeb
 
N

neo [mvp outlook]

issue the chkdsk -f. if the utilitly can't lock the disk, it will ask to
schedule for the next reboot. answer yes.

defrag is win xp's equiv. of scandisk for defraging files. i'm pretty sure
the utility won't run to completion if there are problems with the drive.

--
Neo [MVP Outlook]
Due to the Swen virus, all e-mails sent to this account will be deleted
w/out reading.


n Fri, 23 Jan 2004 20:14:57 -0800, "neo [mvp outlook]"
a CRC error means that the file corrupted. this could be due to a weak spot
on the hard drive or antivirus trying to do something to the pst file at the
same instance as outlook. try excluding *.pst files from being scanned by
Norton Antivirus.

If it happens again, try running a chkdsk against the drive your pst file is
on. If it has bad clusters, take up a conversation with HP since you stated
it is a new box.


Thanks for the response. I've not used chkdsk for years thinking it
was a vestige of DOS days (as a matter of fact it is) and would not
work on Win98+ O/S. It does run on XP - apparently, and I did run it.
Looks like there are some corrupted files but it told me I need to run
it with a switch to fix. I hesitate without knowing the ramifications
of this.

I used SCANDISK and the defrag on my W98 system faily regularly. I see
XP has the defrag but no scandisk.

Suggestions - advice on this.

jeb
 
J

John Brandt

issue the chkdsk -f. if the utilitly can't lock the disk, it will ask to
schedule for the next reboot. answer yes.

defrag is win xp's equiv. of scandisk for defraging files. i'm pretty sure
the utility won't run to completion if there are problems with the drive.


Will do. Thanks for the info.

jeb
 

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