.PST file corrupted... Help!

[Ray W.]

BACKGROUND:
Created PST file for OL-XP profile in network folder \\Judy\archive. From OL
client, went to Folder List and created Inbox History folder in the Personal
Files folder. Moved old emails from Inbox to Inbox History folder (shortcut
in Outlook Bar). Was able to view them after move. Owner attempted to delete
files from Personal Files.PST by going to network folder and opening .PST
file with Outlook. Now OL does not recognize PST file as a PST file. How can
I recover the old mail if OL does not recognize .PST file?

Thanks,
Ray W.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Reason #1 why storing pst-files on a network share is not recommended and
supported by Microsoft; they get corrupted this way!

Anyway; copy the pst-file to your local harddrive and run scanpst.exe to
scan it for errors. When done open Outlook and connect to the file by File->
Open-> Outlook Data File...

--
Roady [MVP]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-Creating Signatures
-Create an Office XP CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 3

 

[mclazyj]

I would suggest storing the PST file in a local profile directory and
work from there. Then at the end of the night when the user logs off,
the PST file copies up to the server via the profile. This is the
system we used here in our office for a few years till we switched to
Exchange. The only downside is if you have impatient users with large
PST files as they can take quite a bit of time to upload before the
machine shuts down. We had one user who would power down forcefully,
because he did not know why the machine was taking so long to shut
off. Every morning, I was in his office doing a restore or a scanpst
fix. So make sure you instruct all users about the signoff delay if
you use this method.

Joseph