Need assistance: PST now zero bytes?

[Reactor]

Hi,

So, XP goes out and updates itself, then restarts itself, while I was away
from the computer. Outlook 2000 was running when she shut down. This has
happened before, and sometimes it damaged my pst. So I'd run scanpst and
fix everything right up.

But THIS time, I can't repair my pst, becuase the Inbox Repair Tool says
it's a zero-byte file and has no usable information in it.

Is there any hope of recovering from this? I use it to get my POP3 mail on
my personal machine.

Thanks.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

How many .pst files do you have on your system? Use Windows search to find them all, then open each one until you find the one that is your default. (Enable searching hidden files in Windows search.)

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Reactor asked:

| Hi,
|
| So, XP goes out and updates itself, then restarts itself, while I was
| away from the computer. Outlook 2000 was running when she shut down.
| This has happened before, and sometimes it damaged my pst. So I'd
| run scanpst and fix everything right up.
|
| But THIS time, I can't repair my pst, becuase the Inbox Repair Tool
| says it's a zero-byte file and has no usable information in it.
|
| Is there any hope of recovering from this? I use it to get my POP3
| mail on my personal machine.
|
| Thanks.

 

[Reactor]

Thanks for the response Milly.

I have identified and located all of my PST files. The one that I need to
recover was pretty big - probably a couple gigs - but now Outlook says it's
zero bytes.

I even tried doing a system restore to the day before this latest "crash"
and that didn't change a thing with regard to the pst file.

Any ideas, anyone?
"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
How many .pst files do you have on your system? Use Windows search to find
them all, then open each one until you find the one that is your default.
(Enable searching hidden files in Windows search.)

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Reactor asked:

| Hi,
|
| So, XP goes out and updates itself, then restarts itself, while I was
| away from the computer. Outlook 2000 was running when she shut down.
| This has happened before, and sometimes it damaged my pst. So I'd
| run scanpst and fix everything right up.
|
| But THIS time, I can't repair my pst, becuase the Inbox Repair Tool
| says it's a zero-byte file and has no usable information in it.
|
| Is there any hope of recovering from this? I use it to get my POP3
| mail on my personal machine.
|
| Thanks.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

When you say it is probably a couple of gigs, is this the older 97-2002 style .pst file? If yes, you need to run a crop tool on it to reduce it to a lower size so you can get at your mails.

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


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Reactor asked:

| Thanks for the response Milly.
|
| I have identified and located all of my PST files. The one that I
| need to recover was pretty big - probably a couple gigs - but now
| Outlook says it's zero bytes.
|
| I even tried doing a system restore to the day before this latest
| "crash" and that didn't change a thing with regard to the pst file.
|
| Any ideas, anyone?
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
| | How many .pst files do you have on your system? Use Windows search
| to find them all, then open each one until you find the one that is
| your default. (Enable searching hidden files in Windows search.)
|
| --
| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
|
| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
| reading.
|
| After furious head scratching, Reactor asked:
|
|| Hi,
||
|| So, XP goes out and updates itself, then restarts itself, while I was
|| away from the computer. Outlook 2000 was running when she shut down.
|| This has happened before, and sometimes it damaged my pst. So I'd
|| run scanpst and fix everything right up.
||
|| But THIS time, I can't repair my pst, becuase the Inbox Repair Tool
|| says it's a zero-byte file and has no usable information in it.
||
|| Is there any hope of recovering from this? I use it to get my POP3
|| mail on my personal machine.
||
|| Thanks.

 

[Reactor]

That's a great resource - thanks again. I guess where I am confused is that
this was a 2+ gig pst file (Outlook 2000 SR-1) and now Windows says it has a
size of zero bytes.

Outlook says there is "no usable information in the file" when I run
scanpst.exe.

Why would the file now have nothing in it?
"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
When you say it is probably a couple of gigs, is this the older 97-2002
style .pst file? If yes, you need to run a crop tool on it to reduce it to
a lower size so you can get at your mails.

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


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Reactor asked:

| Thanks for the response Milly.
|
| I have identified and located all of my PST files. The one that I
| need to recover was pretty big - probably a couple gigs - but now
| Outlook says it's zero bytes.
|
| I even tried doing a system restore to the day before this latest
| "crash" and that didn't change a thing with regard to the pst file.
|
| Any ideas, anyone?
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
| | How many .pst files do you have on your system? Use Windows search
| to find them all, then open each one until you find the one that is
| your default. (Enable searching hidden files in Windows search.)
|
| --
| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
|
| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
| reading.
|
| After furious head scratching, Reactor asked:
|
|| Hi,
||
|| So, XP goes out and updates itself, then restarts itself, while I was
|| away from the computer. Outlook 2000 was running when she shut down.
|| This has happened before, and sometimes it damaged my pst. So I'd
|| run scanpst and fix everything right up.
||
|| But THIS time, I can't repair my pst, becuase the Inbox Repair Tool
|| says it's a zero-byte file and has no usable information in it.
||
|| Is there any hope of recovering from this? I use it to get my POP3
|| mail on my personal machine.
||
|| Thanks.

 

[Brian Tillman]

That's a great resource - thanks again. I guess where I am confused
is that this was a 2+ gig pst file (Outlook 2000 SR-1) and now
Windows says it has a size of zero bytes.

Outlook says there is "no usable information in the file" when I run
scanpst.exe.

This could very well happen if Outlook diesn't close properly and the PST is
open when WIndows shuts down. That's why you make regular backups of your
PST.

 

[Alan]

HI Reactor,

It's probable that your personal folder is corrupt or damaged
considering what you said. Our product Advanced Outlook Repair can
recover mail messages, folders, posts, etc. in PST files. You can
download a free demo version at http://www.datanumen.com/aor/aor.exe

See more detailed information, please visit
http://www.datanumen.com/aor/index.htm.

Alan Chen
DataNumen, Inc. - World leader in data recovery technologies
Website: http://www.datanumen.com
Fax: +1-800-9917-FAX (US Toll-Free), +852-31829286 (HONG KONG)