corrupt pst file

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill
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B

Bill

I've used the same contacts list for years now and it's
quite extensive and valuable to me (so why didn't you back
it up idiot?). XP is bulletproof right?

Now for no apparent reason I get the msg.

"Unable to open default mail folder. Errors have been
detected in the file C:\windows\outlook.pst. Quit all mail
enabled applications and then use the inbox repair tool."

I am then asked if I would like to open my default system
folder instead.

First of all I can find nowhere in help or in a explorer
search any tool that has to do with inbox repair.

Failing that I tried to inport the pst file into Access
with no success. Any suggestions? Is the outlook
application on the Office 97 disk? Can I reload it
seperately and if so will it overwrite the file in
question?

Thanks

Bill Hepburn
 
The Inbox Repair Tool is a file called scanpst.exe. A search of your
hard drive should turn it up. When you find it, run it against your
..PST file and let it fix any errors it finds. One word of caution,
though -- if your .PST file is anywhere near (or over) 2GB in size,
DON'T run the Inbox Repair Tool against it or you may lose data.
There's another tool for that, so post back if you need more info.

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Replies sent to my e-mail address will probably not be answered --
please reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***
 
I ran the scanpst.exe. I found it on the Office 97 disk
There were two files one for 95 and one for NT. I ran the
95 but to no avail. I still get the same message when
trying to load the program.

It seemed to be taking a long time so I went to bed while
it ran. When I checked there was no indication it had run
(No msg saying it had finished). Also I haven't shut down
and restarted yet either I'll try that too.

Do you have any other ideas.

Thanks

Bill
 
OK, and I assume since you decided to run scanpst.exe that your ..PST
file was not at or near the 2GB mark. You could reinstall Office 97 and
it shouldn't overwrite the .PST file, but it won't fix the problem
either. Here's something else you can try: While Outlook is closed,
rename the .PST file to outlook.old (or mailbox.old if it was originally
called mailbox.pst). When you restart Outlook, it will complain it
can't find the .PST file, and it should give you the option to create a
new one. Do so, and then make sure to set it as the default mail
delivery location. Then see if you can open your old .PST file in
Outlook using File | Open Special Folder | Personal Folder. If so, you
can drag and drop your important contacts (and whatever else) into the
new .PST file. Hopefully, they weren't corrupted themselves.

You may also want to look at the following page for some more tips on
fixing a damaged personal folders file:

http://www.slipstick.com/problems/scanpst.htm

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Replies sent to my e-mail address will probably not be answered --
please reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***
 
Hi Joycelyn,

I went to the page you mentioned and followed some of
their instructions to no avail. They suggested to run the
disk utilities then the scanpst a couple of times. I only
did it once so far (takes a bit of time).

My question to you is what does the pst file contain. It
can't be just my contacts since I only have maybe a
thousand or so. When I first encountered the problem the
file was around 7 meg. When I looked last time it was over
2,000,000 kb. That's 2 gig right? How could there be that
much data in it? There is something wrong here.

Bill
 
HI,

Well after hours of waiting while chkdisk and scanpst ran
I think I have a clean file that had 25meg truncated
through a program Slipstick provided. Now however, each
time I tried to open Outlook, it locked up at the splash
screen. I thought I'd be cute and inport the file into
Access so I could see it but it locked up too when I
selected the file to import.

Any ideas?

Also, there were as couple questions I did not ask in the
last mail. First, OUtlook express is my mail program and
always has been. Yet, intermittently, I would hear a click
about every three seconds or so that I was on line.
Somehow I stumbled upon the Outlook inbox and discovered
it had thousands of messages from MS. I think the count
was over 7000 at one point.

What are they doing? Why is it going to a mail program I
don't use? How do I stop this? Is this the original
problem? HOw can I get Outlook to open again?

By the way I only use Outlook for contacts, Express is my
mail prog.

Bill
 
Yes, it is 2GB, and that means you're over the limit and you will not be
able to open the file again without using a special tool to cut some of
the data out of the middle of the file, bringing it below the 2GB limit
so that you can hopefully open it and salvage the rest. Look here for
information on how to do this:

http://www.slipstick.com/problems/repair2gbpst.htm

To answer your question, the .PST file contains mail, appointments,
events, contacts, tasks, notes, journal entries, and custom folder
views. For more information look here:

http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Replies sent to my e-mail address will probably not be answered --
please reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***
 
I responded to your other message before reading this one, so you can
read that one if you want, though you already found the 2GB tool that I
pointed you to. I don't know why you are getting all those MS messages
in Outlook, but if you're not going to use Outlook for mail, delete the
mail accounts from it. If there aren't any mail accounts configured,
Outlook can't download mail from them. Might as well disable the
automatic send/receive function in Outlook as well.

You can't open the .PST file in any other program besides Outlook,
unless maybe there's some 3rd party program out there that claims to be
able to do so. I wouldn't trust my data with them, though.

As far as the hanging at startup goes, you may have a corrupted
outcmd.dat file. This is the file that stores your toolbar
customizations, and when it becomes corrupted, Outlook can't use it at
startup to build your toolbars, thus causing the hangups. Try renaming
or deleting your outcmd.dat file while Outlook is closed. Renaming it
might be the best idea if you have a lot of customizations that you'd
prefer not to lose; that way if renaming the file doesn't solve your
problem, you may be able to restore it later when you do get Outlook
working properly again. Since you're using Windows XP, you'll need to
search in hidden and system folders to find the outcmd.dat file.

I think that answers all your questions, but if you would indulge one of
mine in return -- dontcha think it's a little bit tacky for you to use
my name on your posts, especially if you're gonna spell it wrong? ;-)
Don't worry, Outlook Express lets you "watch" your newsgroup threads so
you can easily see if there are replies to your posts...I wouldn't have
missed your latest replies even if you used your own name :-)

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Replies sent to my e-mail address will probably not be answered --
please reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***
 
I don't know about reloading Office into another drive -- it may or may
not work depending on what is causing the problem. You shouldn't lose
any data, but it won't hurt to have a backup just in case. Outcmd.dat
is the file that stores toolbar customizations, so if you haven't made
any, there may not be an outcmd.dat file. You mentioned you get an
error message when you try to start Outlook -- what is it (exact text
please)? You might try opening Outlook in safe mode -- instructions for
using command-line switches such as the /safe switch can be found here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;156982

As for the differences between Outlook and OE: Outlook is a
full-featured PIM (Personal Information Manager) and is a part of the
Microsoft Office suite. Outlook Express is the free mail and news
client that comes with Internet Explorer. For more detailed information
on the differences, check out these pages:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];257824
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/olexpr.htm

--
Jocelyn Fiorello
MVP - Outlook

*** Replies sent to my e-mail address will probably not be answered --
please reply only to the newsgroup to preserve the message thread. ***
 
Scanpst.exe is installed when you install Microsoft Outlook and is located at:

drive:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033
For detailed information about running the tool, see the Help file, Scanpst.hlp, at the same location.

You need to go to the C drive and then the file path above and use the Scanpst. After scanning it will allow you to repair the pst file.
 
Thanks for help with PST over 2GB limit

Greetings,
I have an oversized pst file challenge with Outlook 2000. I've run the truncation softward to no avail. I've also tried the Hex deletion program... also to no resolve. I did receive the following in WORDPAD from when the INBOX REPAIR TOOL tried to run...

"Attempting to validate header !!Encryption method is invalid 0F
!!Problems with rgbReserved:
Index 0 is FF (should be 0)
Index 1 is FF (shoudl be 0)
Index 2 is C0 (should be 0)"

Then goes on to say somethhing about "missing required column"...

Then "Fatal Error: 80040900"

I tried to copy and paste the msg, but Mozilla wouldn't le me.

Thanks again for any help. I've spent over 6 hours on this and about to pull what little remaining hair I have OUT!!

Kevin
 
Hi,

If scanpst doesn't work, you may need to try some professional software. You can try a tool called Advanced Outlook Repair to repair your PST file. It is a powerful tool to recover messages, folders and other objects from corrupt or damaged Microsoft Outlook PST files.

Detailed information about Advanced Outlook Repair can be found at http://www.datanumen.com/aor/

And you can also download a free demo version at http://www.datanumen.com/aor/aor.exe

Hope this still is useful.


Alan
 
> I've used the same contacts list for years now and it's
Click to expand...
> quite extensive and valuable to me (so why didn't you back
Click to expand...
> it up idiot?). XP is bulletproof right?
> Now for no apparent reason I get the msg.
> "Unable to open default mail folder. Errors have been
Click to expand...
> detected in the file C:\windows\outlook.pst. Quit all mail
Click to expand...
> enabled applications and then use the inbox repair tool."
> I am then asked if I would like to open my default system
> First of all I can find nowhere in help or in a explorer
Click to expand...
> search any tool that has to do with inbox repair.
> Failing that I tried to inport the pst file into Access
Click to expand...
> with no success. Any suggestions? Is the outlook
Click to expand...
> application on the Office 97 disk? Can I reload it
Click to expand...
> seperately and if so will it overwrite the file in
> Bill Hepburn
Click to expand...

If you are facing problems with you Outlook PST files there is no need to worry any more. You can get back your all PST data easily with the help of third party Outlook PST Repair tool. So, try this tool now and have your lost PST data back.
 
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