Outlook 2003 error

[Joe]

My PC crashed last night, and when I restarted it, Outlook 2003 gave an
error message that the personal folders had been improperly terminated, and
it was trying to recover. That message disappeared after a few seconds, and
a normal-looking Outlook window came up. But now, when I try to
send/recieve email, I get the error message:
Task 'Verizon Main - Receiving' reported error (0x80040600) : 'Unknown Error
0x80040600'

Is there a way to recover Outlook without losing the inbox, which contains
numerous unread emails?
Running Vista Home Premium edition.

 

[DL]

In the first instance run Detect/Repair from the OL help menu
Your data is contained within a seperate data file uninstalling/reinstalling
OL has no impact on this, but backups are allways wise. MS has a free backup
addin on their site

 

[Joe]

Thanks, DL. I appreciate the quick response.

I got it fixed, but it was quite an odyssey... I couldn't find
"Detect/Repair" in the help menu. Also, when I searched help, it came up
with lots of unrelated topics. Anyway, after a lot of searching on the
Internet, I learned of a utility called scanpst.exe. Unfortunately, the
Search function on my Start Menu couldn't locate it. I manually looked
through all my folders that had anything to do with Outlook and found it
buried in a hidden folder. Then, I had to manually search for my Personal
Folders file (fortunately, it was pretty straight-forward, and named
"Outlook.pst". When I ran Scanpst, it took about 45 minutes, using 100% of
both cores on my processor, and finally got all the way to the "Repair"
button. when I told it to repair, it ran a while, then stopped responding.
I had to use Task Manger to stop it. After a reboot, I tried Scanpst again.
I finished more quickly, using a lot less processor, and reported no errors
found!

I started Outlook, and everything seems to be working again. (fingers
crossed)

This is crazy. why couldn't the Outlook Help pages have told me about
Scanpst, without me having to go looking for possible fixes. Why is
scanpst.exe buried so far that it was a chore to find it (probably the
typical computer user would never have found it!)? Does "Detect/Repair"
normally show up on the Outlook help menu? Am I just an anomaly who is not
getting a correct install? (I'm using a fully-registered copy of Office
Professional 2003).

I once (long ago) had a Win 3.1 PC operating on my desk side-by-side with
the then-current Mac. The PC was easier to use and was more dependable than
the Mac. Hands down, no contest. However, in the past couple of years, I'm
beginning to think of trying out a Mac again. One thing I held against
Apple was that they made everything too esoteric, and charged through the
nose for support. Microsoft has unfortunately adopted Apple's model.

 

[DL]

I'm not on an OL2003 PC at the moment so cannot remember the actual menu
location Of Detect/Repair, but you can also run a repair via the Office cd,
or via add/remove dialogue

Both the pst (data Files) and scanpst.exe are in hidden folders, you have to
search to include hidden, and / or have show hidden files turned on in
explorer.

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm for various OL
help/Tips

 

[Microsoft Outlook Technical Support]

Hey Joe,

Looks like the personal folder file of outlook might be corrupt. We can
follow the KB article 814441 ( follow the link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814441/en-us ) in this case.

Regards
Outlook Tech

 

[Brian Tillman]

I got it fixed, but it was quite an odyssey... I couldn't find
"Detect/Repair" in the help menu.

It's right there. When you click Help, the menu items are:

Microsoft Office Outlook Help
Show the Office Assistant
Contact Us