'Personal Folders' was not closed properly. The file is being checked for problems.

[Steve Smith]

I recently switched from Outlook Express 6 to Outlook 2003. When I open
Outlook I get this message:
"The data file 'Personal Folders' was not closed properly. The file is
being checked for problems."
It then takes about 10 minutes to check all of the data before Outlook will
load. What's causing this problem and how can I fix it?

I have about 8GB of emails that were imported over from Outlook Express. Is
this huge number of emails the cause of the problem? I like to be able
search out old emails and I prefer to keep them if possible. Any help would
be greatly appreciated.

Steve Smith

 

[Steve Smith]

I've solved this problem. I repaired the Office 2003 SP1 installation and I
then downloaded the latest updates and the problem is gone. I don't know if
it was the repair or the updates that fixed it. I didn't see any specific
Outlook updates except for the Junk Email update. In any case I'm glad it's
fixed.

Steve Smith

 

[Steve Smith]

I spoke too soon. The problem is back. It's strange, I was able to
repeatedly exit Outlook and open it again without a the problem. It opened
surprisingly fast. Now, it's back to taking 10 minutes again to start up.
However, for some reason it doesn't have the problem every time I start it.

Google searches show that my problem is very common, but I haven't found a
solution yet. Any suggestions? Do I need to delete the bulk of my 8GB of
emails. Is that the likely cause? I guess I could use Outlook Express when I
need to look an old email up? Or, maybe I need to just go back to using OE
and then I wouldn't have to worry about exceeding email storage limits. But,
there must be a better solution. Any help would be appreciated.

Steve Smith

 

[Brian Tillman]

I spoke too soon. The problem is back. It's strange, I was able to
repeatedly exit Outlook and open it again without a the problem. It
opened surprisingly fast. Now, it's back to taking 10 minutes again
to start up. However, for some reason it doesn't have the problem
every time I start it.

This is usually a symptom of Outlook not closing properly. See if
http://www.slipstick.com/problems/close.htm helps.