PST file is empty but looks normal

[Glenn]

I have a user who has been away for 3 weeks. He has a personal folder file
for his archive email which had thousands of items in it. He used his laptop
this morning and found that his PST was empty. I checked it and the PST file
is in the same folder it always was, it has the same file name and same name
within Outlook but the file is only 265kb, which is effectlively a brand new
PST file.

I have searched for all PST files on all his drives (local and network) and
can't find anything. He did not consciously delete his files and would have
had to make quite an effort to do so as he had many subfolders in this PST
file.

I have no idea how this has happened and have never seen it before.
Everything seems normal there is just nothing left in the PST file.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

 

[Pat Willener]

A 265KB PST file is indeed an empty, unused file.

When you search for other PST files, make sure that the "show hidden
files" folder option is checked, as PST files may be classified as
hidden files.

 

[Glenn]

Thanks fo the reply Pat.

I did search hidden files. I also logged in as Administrator and did the
same in case there was any secrity issue. Nothing.

 

[Pat Willener]

In this case we can only hope that the user had a recent backup of his
"good" PST file.

 

[Glenn]

As you could pobably guess he is your typical user and throws his arms up in
the air when backups are mentioned. "That's your job Mr. IT!"

Thanks Pat.

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP (OneNote)]

And of course you've looked in his Deleted Items folder? (just a SWAG)

Otherwise I'm afraid it's a lost cause if you've searched everywhere for
*.PST and can't find it.

--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
http://www.officeforlawyers.com
Author - The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/5m3f5q

 

[Brian Tillman]

As you could pobably guess he is your typical user and throws his
arms up in the air when backups are mentioned. "That's your job Mr.
IT!"

Time to acquire a commercial PST recovery program, then. Google for
"(Office OR PST) Recovery"