corrupt .pst file?

[Guest]

hello.
i'm a new user of outlook. i used outlook 2000 only to organize my contacts,
and i tried to share them with my boss. so i moved, copied, and opened the
..pst file over network back and forth on his computer and mine, and suddenly,
ALL the contacts info is gone! The .pst file is still there, and the size
of the
file is large enough to contain all the contacts i have registered. (480KB)
but when i open the .pst file from outlook, the contacts folder opens empty.
i am desperate because i have stored all the activity records in there too!
pleeeeze help me!

 

[William Lefkovics [MVP]]

Of course, that is what backups are for.

Microsoft does not support .pst files accessed over the network. It leads
to corruption.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019/

Things to try...
confirm there are no filtered views applied to that folder
confirm the items have not been accidentally dragged to another folder.
search for a contact you know exists, but search from the personal folder
level, not just the contacts folder.

That's all I can think of.

 

[Oliver Vukovics]

Hi downman,

in addition to Williams tips:

a.) maybe the contacts are only "hide", so you could use the command
"/Cleanviews":
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP010031101033.aspx

b.) You could try "scanpst.exe" to repair a PST file:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP010210641033.aspx

c.) you could try to export the items into another PST file
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/CH063566561033.aspx

If you want to share Outlook PST files in a network, you will need a 3rd
party solution:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/CE010719621033.aspx

 

[Guest]

Oliver,
i tried repairing the pst file using the scanpst, but the scan result comes
out
as "no error found", so i couldn't even get to the repair stage.
it is bothering me because the file size is 480KB, and there is absolutely
nothing when i open the pst file from outlook.
i made sure it's not a veiw setting or a filter that's making the data
'hidden'.
i guess i'll just have to rebuild the contact data. T_T boo hoo.
thank you so much for your help!

 

[Guest]

William,

thank you for your tip.
i should've known better!