my outlook.pst file is not accessible

[Vivek Hutheesing]

My outlook 2003 data file got too large (over 4 gigabytes) and the first sign
of trouble was when i clicked on an inbox subfolder and i saw one large pane
to the right (not the normal two panes showing emails on top half and preview
of selected email on the bottom half) which said folder cannot be accessed.

Long story short, for the last 24 hours, i have been trying to run
scanpst.exe on the outlook.pst file but it generates an error and cannot even
scan it let alone indicate if it can be repaired. it suggests defragging, so
i have run defragging 3-4 times on my C drive, but the one file that cannot
be defragged is, you guessed it, the outlook.pst file.

The data is really important and i dont know what to do - i am thinking of
buying a utility that carves up the PST file into smaller chucks, but dont
know which one to trust/buy.

Finally, every time i open the outlook, it takes hours to open, and if i
click on anything it says Not Responding and i have to close out.

Greatful for any help or advice on what to try next!!

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Hi Vivek,

Although 4GB is large, it wouldn't be classified as "too large" unless your
drive is still in FAT32 format and not in NTFS format. This is the first
thing you should check and convert if needed (highly recommended when
running Windows NT, 2000, XP or Vista). See;
http://www.msoutlook.info/question/70

If it is already in NTFS format, try running a "check disk" on the drive;
Start-> Run; type; cmd-> in command window type; chkdsk <drive letter> /f

If that doesn't come up with anything either, see if you can copy the file
to another drive.

Disaster recovery tools don't come cheap but that is of course relative to
the data that you want to safe. I got excellent results with;
http://addins.howto-outlook.com/datanumen_outlookrepair
If you decide to order use "DNC-APME-HT" to get a discount.

 

[DL]

Outlook 2003 can handle a data file of 4gb, allthough there maybe
performance issues
What err msg does scanpst give when you start it?
You might also want to run chkdsk

In the mean time use the Mail applet in the control Panel to add a new data
file, set that as default and remove the origonal data file (that only
disconnects it from outlook) Outlook should now function

PS Important data means you should have backups