New install... Now PST wants Password...?

[KennethS]

Howdy,

I needed to re-install Windows 2000 Pro on one of our systems (Don't ask...)
and next installed Outlook 2000. It ran fine.

Then, I pointed it to its former PST file, but, to my surprise, Outlook
asked for the PST's Password. It never had one assigned, and so guessing what
password Outlook wanted proved fruitless.

Next, I tried to remove the password using PST19UPG.EXE, but that failed to
do the deed. Instead, it produced a string of errors. SCANPST shows the PST
file itself to be free of errors.

What might be an appropriate next step in this effort?

Very sincere thanks,

Kenneth

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP P/I]]

See if this utility helps:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/pst_password.html
PstPassword v1.02 - Outlook PST Password Recovery

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Live at Hot Licks - www.badnewsbluesband.com

 

[KennethS]

Hi Hal,

I will not know until tomorrow if the passwords provided by the software you
suggested will do the deed, but I am deeply appreciative of your help.

Let me ask you this though:

Quite clearly, the passwords are of the "Randomly Generated" sort, and I
would have to say the (software version of) "Honestly, Officer, I never saw
these before in my life..."

Given my description of the re-install, where might the password(s) have
come from?

Sincere thanks again,

Kenneth

 

[KennethS]

Hi again Hal,

After reading further, I now understand that these "passwords" are, in fact,
strings with the same checksum as the original password. So, of course, I
would not recognize them, but a version of my question still remains:

I know that the PST was never password protected.

So whatever password might now be locking me out came from somewhere other
than the keyboard.

Might you know its source?

Sincere thanks as before,

Kenneth

 

[KennethS]

Hi again Hal,

I am back at the problem machine, and your suggestion worked perfectly!!

Very sincere thanks,

Kenneth

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP P/I]]

I doubt your .PST was ever password protected. What I suspect happened is
the password hash somehow was damaged so you suddenly had a password where
there wasn't one. I don't know how this happens, but I've seen the problem
before. In any event, once you have something that works, you can reset the
password back to nothing again.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Live at Hot Licks - www.badnewsbluesband.com

 

[Brian Tillman]

I know that the PST was never password protected.

So whatever password might now be locking me out came from somewhere
other than the keyboard.

There are situations that have been known to modify a PST in such a way that
Outlook thinks it's password protected. Sometimes, copying the PST without
adhering to certainly careful constraints seems to be a culprit. There is
some evidence that other conditions can cause it as well, but they're
difficult to categorize. Suffice it to say, it's been known to happen
despite never having added a password.

 

[KennethS]

Hi Brian & Hal,

I thank you for the education, and for the solution...

All the best,

Kenneth