Outlook 2000 - Duplicate Personal Folders

[Basharat A. Javaid]

My mailbox.pst file got corrupted. While exporting information from
archive.pst, I inadvertently exported to a new "Personal Folders". The new
"Personal Folders" appear before the original "Personal Folders" I had. Now
incoming emails & outgoing emails appear in the "InBox" & "Sent" folders of
the (new) duplicate "Personal Folders".

How can I delete the duplicate "Personal Folders"? Under the File =>
Folders menu, the "Delete" function is grayed out!?

Also where do I find the "InBox Repair Tool"? I got an error message for an
error in the Mail.pst file followed by Quit all applications and use the
InBox Repair Tool!


Thanks in advance.


Basharat.

 

[Alias]

My mailbox.pst file got corrupted. While exporting information from
archive.pst, I inadvertently exported to a new "Personal Folders". The new
"Personal Folders" appear before the original "Personal Folders" I had. Now
incoming emails & outgoing emails appear in the "InBox" & "Sent" folders of
the (new) duplicate "Personal Folders".

How can I delete the duplicate "Personal Folders"? Under the File =>
Folders menu, the "Delete" function is grayed out!?

Also where do I find the "InBox Repair Tool"? I got an error message for an
error in the Mail.pst file followed by Quit all applications and use the
InBox Repair Tool!


Thanks in advance.


Basharat.

Search for scanpst.exe. When you open it, it will have a browse button
and you need to browse to the .pst location that Outlook is currently
using. Both files are in a hidden folder. Right click on the new
Personal Folders and close it first. It won't delete it but close it. If
you want to delete it, you need to find it with Windows Explorer and
then nuke it, best if not connected to Outlook.

Alias

 

[Brian Tillman]

My mailbox.pst file got corrupted. While exporting information from
archive.pst, I inadvertently exported to a new "Personal Folders". The new
"Personal Folders" appear before the original "Personal
Folders" I had. Now incoming emails & outgoing emails appear in the
"InBox" & "Sent" folders of the (new) duplicate "Personal Folders".

NEVER export from a PST to a PST. It's completely unnecessary and can lead
to profile corruption.

How can I delete the duplicate "Personal Folders"? Under the File =>
Folders menu, the "Delete" function is grayed out!?

Select the Personal Folder root where you want the messages to go and then
click FIle>Properties. On one of the tabs should be a checkbox labeled
"Deliver new e-mail here" (not the exact wording, but the meaning is clear).
Check that box, then stop and restart Outlook. You can move any messages
from the other PST (where mail was being delivered) to the new default and
then right-click the root "Personal Folders" and choose Close. You can then
delete the PST with Windows Explorer. Never delete a PST that is still
showing in Outlook's Folder List.

Also where do I find the "InBox Repair Tool"? I got an error message
for an error in the Mail.pst file followed by Quit all applications
and use the InBox Repair Tool!

If it's not in a menu item "Microsoft Office Tools" on your All Programs
menu or under the Microsoft Office menu, then open Windows Explorer. In the
Address bar, enter

%CommonProgramFiles%\System\MSMAPI\1033

and click Go. Look for "SCANPST.EXE" there. Double-click and when it
prompts for the PST, browse to where you have that stored, select it, and
click OK. If the PST is in the folder Outlook usually uses for its PSTs,
then you'll likely need to change your Folder Options to allow viewing
hidden files and folders before you'll be able to browse to it. The default
location for PSTs is
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook and "Local
Settings" is normally a hidden folder.

 

[Basharat A. Javaid]

Alias: Thanks.
I found the reference to Scanpst.exe by googling for Inbox Repair tool. I
ran the Scanpst but it bombed saying a fatal error was encountered occurred
in the mailbox.pst file?

I restored a backup copy and the Outlook works fine but now I have two
duplicate Personal Folders? How do I get rid of one of them?

Also, some of my contacts are missing? I backup my computer on 07/11 and I
had created some contacts way before then which are now missing?

Does the personal address book file Mailbox.pab have the same contacts as
those saved in the .pst file? How do I view the contacts in the .pab file
and how do I ?

How do I find out which .pst is linked to which Personal Folders? And once I
close a folder, how do I bring it back in view?


Thanks.

 

[Basharat A. Javaid]

NEVER export from a PST to a PST. It's completely unnecessary and can
lead to profile corruption.


Select the Personal Folder root where you want the messages to go and then
click FIle>Properties. On one of the tabs should be a checkbox labeled
"Deliver new e-mail here" (not the exact wording, but the meaning is
clear). Check that box, then stop and restart Outlook. You can move any
messages from the other PST (where mail was being delivered) to the new
default and then right-click the root "Personal Folders" and choose Close.
You can then delete the PST with Windows Explorer. Never delete a PST
that is still showing in Outlook's Folder List.


If it's not in a menu item "Microsoft Office Tools" on your All Programs
menu or under the Microsoft Office menu, then open Windows Explorer. In
the Address bar, enter

%CommonProgramFiles%\System\MSMAPI\1033

and click Go. Look for "SCANPST.EXE" there. Double-click and when it
prompts for the PST, browse to where you have that stored, select it, and
click OK. If the PST is in the folder Outlook usually uses for its PSTs,
then you'll likely need to change your Folder Options to allow viewing
hidden files and folders before you'll be able to browse to it. The
default location for PSTs is
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook and "Local
Settings" is normally a hidden folder.

The location of mailbox.pst on my computer is in C:\Exchange but the
archive.pst is in the folder documents & settings\%UserProfile%\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook and is not hidden at all.

How do I find out the name of the .pst file linked to a given Personal
Folders?

I searched for .pst files and found only mailbox.pst file on my computer
which is in C:\Exchange, so I can't really delete that!?


Basharat.

 

[Brian Tillman]

How do I find out the name of the .pst file linked to a given
Personal Folders?

Right-click the root of the folder set in Outlook and choose Properties,
then Advanced.

I searched for .pst files and found only mailbox.pst file on my
computer which is in C:\Exchange, so I can't really delete that!?

If scanpst is reporting errors in mailbox.pst and you don't have a recent
backup, you may find that one of the commercially-available PST scanners may
be of value. Google for "(office OR pst) recovery"