SCANPST.EXE changed appointments to mail!

[Guest]

I am using Outlook 2002 and Windows 2000 under a corporate system. I only use
Outlook as a calendar, and use a corporate mail system.I also use a Palm Zire
71 and synchronise it with Outlook I returned to work on Tuesday (4th) and,
on attempting to open outlook it told me that there were errors in the .pst
file and I should use scanpst.exe. I did so: it found errors (60+?) and
proceeded to fix them.
It saved the results as "recovered folder 8122" but had changed all of my
appointments into mail messages, and insists on listing them by date of
creation of appointment. The icon still shows them as calendar appointments.
"from" shows as unknown, and "received" is date of creating the appointment
Bottom right of screen shows appointment details (correct) but won't let me
edit them. When I tried to synchronise with the Palm it delated all
appointments on that.
Any ideas, anyone?

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I am using Outlook 2002 and Windows 2000 under a corporate system. I
only use Outlook as a calendar, and use a corporate mail system.I
also use a Palm Zire 71 and synchronise it with Outlook I returned to
work on Tuesday (4th) and, on attempting to open outlook it told me
that there were errors in the .pst file and I should use scanpst.exe.
I did so: it found errors (60+?) and proceeded to fix them.
It saved the results as "recovered folder 8122" but had changed all
of my appointments into mail messages, and insists on listing them by
date of creation of appointment. The icon still shows them as
calendar appointments. "from" shows as unknown, and "received" is
date of creating the appointment Bottom right of screen shows
appointment details (correct) but won't let me edit them. When I
tried to synchronise with the Palm it delated all appointments on
that.
Any ideas, anyone?

ScanPST will fix errors, but it can't restore everything to perfect
functionality. Do you by any chance have a backup? If something like this
happens again, don't sync your handheld - you'll only make things worse.

 

[Guest]

ScanPST will fix errors, but it can't restore everything to perfect
functionality. Do you by any chance have a backup? If something like this
happens again, don't sync your handheld - you'll only make things worse.

I THINK the programme asked me if I wanted to back up prior to repair, and I
THINK I said yes, but it was the first day back after the holidays! When I am
looking for the back up file, though, I can't find it. I am pretty clear
about the time it was created. What suffix would it have? .BAK?
Interestingly, Outlook will not now synch with the handheld: it just wipes
any appointments I have entered there.
Is it possible to make all this data believe it is appointments rather than
mail?

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I THINK the programme asked me if I wanted to back up prior to
repair, and I THINK I said yes, but it was the first day back after
the holidays!

That's not really what I was asking - I meant, do you have a backup of your
PST file from when it was working? You should make regular backups of all
your data.

When I am looking for the back up file, though, I can't
find it. I am pretty clear about the time it was created. What suffix
would it have? .BAK?

I don't know what format the scanpst.exe tool uses for backups. And since
the PST file was corrupt at that point anyway, I don't know that that file
would be of much use.

Interestingly, Outlook will not now synch with
the handheld: it just wipes any appointments I have entered there.
Is it possible to make all this data believe it is appointments
rather than mail?

I don't know how to do that, unfortunately. You may have lost your data

 

[Brian Tillman]

I am using Outlook 2002 and Windows 2000 under a corporate system. I
only use Outlook as a calendar, and use a corporate mail system.I
also use a Palm Zire 71 and synchronise it with Outlook I returned to
work on Tuesday (4th) and, on attempting to open outlook it told me
that there were errors in the .pst file and I should use scanpst.exe.

How large is the PST?

I did so: it found errors (60+?) and proceeded to fix them.
It saved the results as "recovered folder 8122" but had changed all
of my appointments into mail messages

It's possible you might be able to fix things by running Outlook from a
command line with the /resetfolders switch. Click Start>Run and put

"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office10\Outlook.exe" /resetfolders

in the Open box (include the quotes and the spaces). Click OK. This
should restore the missing folder names to the PST. Once that's done, you
should be able to drag-and-drop all the misfiles items into the recreated
folders.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Outlook will not now synch with
the handheld: it just wipes any appointments I have entered there.
Is it possible to make all this data believe it is appointments
rather than mail?

As an alternative to what I suggested, you can make a completely new PST
(File>New>Outlook Data File), make it your delivery location (Tools>E-mail
Accounts>Next. At the bottom left), and then drag-and-drop all the misfiled
items to their proper locations in the new PST. Any undamaged folders can
be copied wholesale. Any damaged folder, like the damaged calendar, can be
opened as a mail folder and you can select all the items in it (CTRL-A) and
move them to the new, properly formatted folder.

 

[Guest]

How large is the PST?


It's possible you might be able to fix things by running Outlook from a
command line with the /resetfolders switch. Click Start>Run and put

"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office10\Outlook.exe" /resetfolders

in the Open box (include the quotes and the spaces). Click OK. This
should restore the missing folder names to the PST. Once that's done, you
should be able to drag-and-drop all the misfiles items into the recreated
folders.

Thanks Lanwench and Brian. Tried all suggested methods, but no joy, so am
now using the Palm desktop software that came with the PDA! Only thing of
potential interest I have been able to find is the Outlook.Log file from the
occasion when I ran Scanpst.exe. It was at this point that Outlook decided
that all of my appointments were emails.
I still have all of the data (diary for last two years) just not in a very
user friendly format.
I've spent a great deal of time trying to sort this out and our onsite tech
support claim not to know a great deal about Outlook :-( I think I'm going to
have to cut my losses.

Tim

 

[Brian Tillman]

Tried all suggested methods, but no joy,

I have a hard time believing that one of the methods I suggested (creating a
new PST, making it your delivery location, and copying the items from the
old calendar folder) didn't work.

 

[Guest]

I have a hard time believing that one of the methods I suggested (creating a
new PST, making it your delivery location, and copying the items from the
old calendar folder) didn't work.

Rumbled me Brian. To completely follow the method you suggested, Outlook
wanted me to give it access to one of my mail accounts (business or personal)
and I have never used Outlook for mail, nor do I want to. I suppose I could
open a new mail account specifically to undertake this task, but don't want
to spend any more time trying to sort it out.
Sorry!

 

[Brian Tillman]

To completely follow the method you suggested,
Outlook wanted me to give it access to one of my mail accounts
(business or personal) and I have never used Outlook for mail, nor do
I want to.

There's nothing "mailish" with the method. You could do it completely
off-line if you want.