how can I open a damaged pst. back up file?

[Guest]

in outlook 2003, i exported all my emails to a pst. back up file. I tried to
import this file after formatting my notebook. However, I received the
following error " ....... .pst is not a personal folder file". How can I
restore my backup? I desperatley need all my business contacts and emails.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Mali

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

in outlook 2003, i exported all my emails to a pst. back up file. I
tried to import this file after formatting my notebook. However, I
received the following error " ....... .pst is not a personal folder
file". How can I restore my backup? I desperatley need all my
business contacts and emails. Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Mali

Export/import is not the best way to do this, note. You should have closed
Outlook and simply copied your PST file to the location of your choice for
backup.

If you copied the PST file to a read-only medium like a CD, make sure you
remove the read-only file attribute after copying it back to your hard
drive.

If that doesn't work, make a backup copy and run the inbox repair tool
(scanpst.exe - search for it) against the file to see if it can fix it.