PST file shows up twice in data file list

[Chris Bailey]

I've got an odd (cosmetic?) situation with an Outlook 2003 system
(Windows XP Pro SP2 with all latest updates for both Windows and
Office). System is a Dell Latitude D610 with 1G RAM, and is otherwise
running fine (passes full spyware/virus sweep just fine).

The user has a .PST file named "mh-v3.PST", but it shows up in the
"Data File Management" section twice. It also shows as two different
trees. Both of these are identical; if you delete a message in tree #1
and then look in that same folder in tree #2, it's gone. So it's not an
*actual* duplicate file, but like an "echo" of the file showing up
twice. If I look in the "Data File Management" section, here's what I
see listed (the first is his auto-archive file, of course):

C:\Documents and Settings\matth\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\mh-v3-archive-1.pst
C:\Documents and Settings\matth\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\mh-v3.pst
C:\Documents and Settings\matth\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\mh-v3.pst

Of those, the second one is marked "mail delivery location".

It seems pretty much just a cosmetic problem (no harm being done as far
as I can tell), but does anyone know how to fix this? It is kind of
annoying, and I'm wondering if it's indicitive of a problem I should
have fixed, like database corruption. Thanks!


Charles "Chris" Bailey
Saint Joseph MI

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You didn't look before you posted. This question has been posted countless
times.
It is indicative of a corrupt profile, most likely because the information
store was not migrated the way Microsoft wants you to.
It is largely cosmetic.
You can fix it by creating a new profile from scratch and migrating data to
it the way Microsoft tells you to in the Outlook 2003 Help files.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx

 

[Chris Bailey]

Thanks for pointing me to the fix. But, I would say that I *did* in
fact skim the archives looking for solutions to this, but was unable to
find the "countless" posts you refer to. This isn't an easy-to-name
problem, like something tied to a specific error number. What do you
look for? The word "twice"? "two"? "data files"? Sorry, it's too
esoteric to track down easily... little surprise I didn't stumble upon
these past postings.

Regardless, thanks for the advice. I'll see if it works for me.
CHRIS

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

My search for "Duplicate PST" just returned 529 hits in this one group
alone.