Outlook 2003 - Data is SUSPECT error when opening - Please help

[Jnet Tech]

I have a client who got an error when opening Outlook 2003 telling him
his data is SUSPECT and to contact the administrator if the problem
persists. His only options were Retry, Cancel, or Help. Retry
produced the same errror. Help didn't refer to his exact problem, and
the similar problems (corrupt data, can't find file) did not help.
Cancel caused Outlook to continue loading & automatically create a new
blank data file.

Now all of his original data appears to be gone. I did a search for
..pst files and could not find the correct one. I found one that I
created in early March when I exported his contact list to share with
another computer that uses Outlook 2002 so I was able to restore his
contacts, but nothing else.

This guy is a contractor and uses Outlook quite a bit. I know he uses
the calendar and journal to keep detailed job notes. He was acting
like it wasn't a big deal, but I know he just hasn't realized what he
has lost yet.

I happened to be there at the time to look at a problem he was having
with his printer. When I got there he had Outlook going. I opened OE
to access his network printer, and also looked at the printer
settings, but didn't change anything. Once the printer error was
cleared and the print queue empty I closed OE & Outlook and restarted
the computer. I logged in as Admin and tried to print. It still
didn't work (He's calling his Canon Rep tomorrow).

His computer is networked with another to share the internet. The
computer with the Outlook problem is the internet "server". He's been
having a problem with the client trying to connect to the internet
during startup so I turned the Internet Connection Firewall on with
logging enabled on the server. Tested it alittle and it seemed to
solve the problem. We were getting ready to walk out the door when he
opened Outlook to get a phone number and got the error message. I
ended up spending quite awhile trying to find the file or a recent
copy on either computer with no luck.

Does anybody have any insight on what might have caused this to
happen? I don't think any of the things I did would have caused it.
And is there anything I can do to fix it?

Any & all help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have a client who got an error when opening Outlook 2003 telling him
his data is SUSPECT and to contact the administrator if the problem
persists.

I can't find any error mentioning "data is suspect" in either the Outlook or
Exchange knowledgebases. Are you sure it is Outlook producing the message
and not an integrated antivirus program?

 

[Jnet Tech]

I can't find any error mentioning "data is suspect" in either the Outlook or
Exchange knowledgebases. Are you sure it is Outlook producing the message
and not an integrated antivirus program?

He has antivirus software installed, but it isn't active.

I searched the knowledges bases and internet myself before posting my
message and didn't find any answer.

We got the error when opening outlook and after clicking cancel it
automatically created a new database (didn't let me select any
options) and all of his information was gone.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Jeanette

 

[Jnet Tech]

I have a client who got an error when opening Outlook 2003 telling him
his data is SUSPECT and to contact the administrator if the problem
persists. His only options were Retry, Cancel, or Help. Retry
produced the same errror. Help didn't refer to his exact problem, and
the similar problems (corrupt data, can't find file) did not help.
Cancel caused Outlook to continue loading & automatically create a new
blank data file.

Now all of his original data appears to be gone. I did a search for
.pst files and could not find the correct one. I found one that I
created in early March when I exported his contact list to share with
another computer that uses Outlook 2002 so I was able to restore his
contacts, but nothing else.

This guy is a contractor and uses Outlook quite a bit. I know he uses
the calendar and journal to keep detailed job notes. He was acting
like it wasn't a big deal, but I know he just hasn't realized what he
has lost yet.

I happened to be there at the time to look at a problem he was having
with his printer. When I got there he had Outlook going. I opened OE
to access his network printer, and also looked at the printer
settings, but didn't change anything. Once the printer error was
cleared and the print queue empty I closed OE & Outlook and restarted
the computer. I logged in as Admin and tried to print. It still
didn't work (He's calling his Canon Rep tomorrow).

His computer is networked with another to share the internet. The
computer with the Outlook problem is the internet "server". He's been
having a problem with the client trying to connect to the internet
during startup so I turned the Internet Connection Firewall on with
logging enabled on the server. Tested it alittle and it seemed to
solve the problem. We were getting ready to walk out the door when he
opened Outlook to get a phone number and got the error message. I
ended up spending quite awhile trying to find the file or a recent
copy on either computer with no luck.

Does anybody have any insight on what might have caused this to
happen? I don't think any of the things I did would have caused it.
And is there anything I can do to fix it?

Any & all help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you

I was there again today trying to resolve the problem with no luck.
Today I used a restore point and restored to a time before I touched
the machine yesterday. I didn't restore his data file (I didn't
really expect it to), and I was able to recreate the error message.

This time when I started Outlook it gave an error that it couldn't
find the data file "The File c:\...\outlook.pst could not be found",
and opened a folder list so I could pick one, I clicked cancel, and
then the other error message popped up. The exact wording follows:

"There is a problem with the database, the database state is SUSPECT.
It is not available at this time. To try again, Please click Retry.
If the problem persists check Help."

The title on the message box refereced Business Contact Manager.

Once again Retry did nothing but produce the same error, and cancel
causes a new database to be created.

Yesterday when it happened the first time we didn't get the error
message about the .pst file, just the one about the database being
SUSPECT.

Either way his .pst file is gone. I found an old one and used it, but
the data in it is from October 2002. I ran a file recovery utility,
and it didn't find it.

Any ideas on what caused this would be helpful. I set his computer up
to backup the Documents and Settings folder to the other computer
daily, so this should not be a problem in the future. It still would
be nice to know what happened though.

Thanks again.

Jeanette

 

[Brian Tillman]

We got the error when opening outlook and after clicking cancel it
automatically created a new database (didn't let me select any
options) and all of his information was gone.

When you say "created a new database", do you mean created a new Personal
Folders (PST) file? If so, just remove the extra Personal Folders service
from the mail profile and, if there is no other, create one pointing to the
correct PST.