A really interesting Outlook problem!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alexander Novikov
  • Start date Start date
A

Alexander Novikov

Hello everybody!

I've got an interesting Outlook file (112 KB RAR-ed) which shows the
following behavior: when you open it (i tried Outlook 2003), it shows up OK,
but no item could be deleted or moved. It tells "Errors have been detected
in your Outlook data file, close all programs and use the Inbox repair
tool". But scanpst (Inbox Repair Tool) finds absolutely no problem even
with -logv 9, the most detailed one.

What can you suggest me to do?

Here is the link to the file: http://www.anovikov.com/StrangeFile.rar

Are there any Microsoft people out here?
 
By looking at the file in Outlook I just see one seriously messed up file
(it could also be language in what it was created) with only test messages
in it. Since it only contains test messages why not start of with a clean
pst-file?

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1
 
By looking at the file in Outlook I just see one seriously messed up file
(it could also be language in what it was created) with only test messages
in it. Since it only contains test messages why not start of with a clean
pst-file?
Click to expand...

Yes, there are test messages only. In fact, i've got similar files with not
only test messages. I _suppose_ than there is something wrong with the TC
blocks in the file. But they are, at least, compliant to the Outlook file
format documentation (and scanpst also processes them correctly). I assumed
there must me some Outlook file format pros out here who could tell me
that's really wrong with the TC blocks. Outlook must probably have different
real requirements to how TC blocks must be formed than scanpst and file
format documentation thinks it have, so it's most likely an Outlook bug or a
scanpst/documentation bug.
 
By looking at the file in Outlook I just see one seriously messed up file
(it could also be language in what it was created) with only test messages
in it. Since it only contains test messages why not start of with a clean
pst-file?
Click to expand...

If you're an MVP-Outlook you should probably have Outlook source code or
debug symbols. Try running Outlook in debugger, open this file and delete a
message. You should probably have an idea what's wrong. It could be also
valuable to MS because it could be a bug in PST engine in Outlook
 
By looking at the file in Outlook I just see one seriously messed up file
(it could also be language in what it was created) with only test messages
in it. Since it only contains test messages why not start of with a clean
pst-file?
Click to expand...

I have also tried to debug, but i haven't got debug symbols so there was not
much chance. I was only able to see that the reason of the error message
when deleting was an exception, not a failed check/assertion. Probably a
memory-related issue, but who knows...
 
No, we don't have source code and we leave the debugging up to MS; we just
mention it when we think something is wrong. How and in what version of
Outlook is this file created? See if the following tool is able to recover
it;
http://www.officerecovery.com/outlook

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1
 
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