HDD Crash and Recovering Backed-Up Outlook 2007

[Joe Teixeira]

This problem has been haunting me for years but now has become a crisis.
I've been dutifully backing up Outlook.pst to an external HDD. I had a HDD
crash last night and data on the drive was unable to be recovered, no
problem, I have a back up. I tried to import the backup.pst tonight and it
is prompting me for a password. I know, for certain, that I didn't set a
password for this file. What's going on?

 

[DL]

How did you create the backup?
You dont Import a pst, within Outlook you open it (File>Open>Data File)
You might want to copy your backup.pst to Documents folder first

 

[Joe Teixeira]

I instructed the Maxtor Backup Manager to back up that file. The file was
copied to my E:\ (external hdd). Per your instruction, I copied the file the
the Documents folder, then tried to open it using File>Open>Data File. I
received a dialog box titled Personal Folders Password, Type the Password
for backup.pst.
OK - Cancel. I tried hitting Enter. It didn't work.
Joe

 

[DL]

Try these;
1) In explorer ensure the backup is not marked read only
2) search to include hidden for scanpst.exe and run it aginst the backup to
see what it reports
Then;
3) Does your Maxtor backup utility have an option to restore the backup
file, if so restore it to a folder within Documents (*Not* the origonal
location), then try to open that within Outlook

I suspect that niether of the above will resolve your problem and that the
origonal backup failed, perhaps due to outllook not being fully closed when
the backup ran.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

This problem has been haunting me for years but now has become a crisis.
I've been dutifully backing up Outlook.pst to an external HDD. I had a HDD
crash last night and data on the drive was unable to be recovered, no
problem, I have a back up. I tried to import the backup.pst tonight and it
is prompting me for a password. I know, for certain, that I didn't set a
password for this file. What's going on?

This is a fairly conclusive sign that your backup program, whatever it is,
doesn't handle PSTs properly and had ruined it. If your backup runs while
Outlook is open, that's probably why.