"The file <file>.pst is not a personal folders file"

[Tanya J via OfficeKB.com]

I burnt several .pst files to disc in order to import them at my new job.
Without realising I burnt them to disc while Outlook was still open. The
..pst files were still attached and in use by my profile. Now when i attempt
to add them to my new outlook profile i get an error message: "The file
<file>.pst is not a personal folders file. The .pst files that weren't in
my profile at the time open up fine.

I have attempted to run the Scanpst/Inbox Repair Tool but recieve the error
message: "The inbox repair tool does not recognize <file>.pst"

The Read-only attribute is not checked and I am importing to outlook 2003
from outlook 2003.

Seems as though because the file wasn't closed off first, the data is
incomplete. What do I need to do to get this open? Is there some
application I can use to repair it?

Please help!!
Thank you.

 

[George Hester]

I cannot tell if your are copying the psts to your harddrive; renmoving the Read-only attribute after doing so; and opening the psts correctly in Outlook.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

You indeed damaged it beyond repair for scanpst.exe. You can try it with
this third party tool;
http://www.officerecovery.com/outlook/index.htm

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-What do the Outlook Icons Mean?
-Create an Office 2003 CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 1

 

[Tanya J via OfficeKB.com]

Yes - I have copied them to my HD, removed readonly attribute and then
opening them correctly through outlook

 

[Brian Tillman]

I burnt several .pst files to disc in order to import them at my new
job. Without realising I burnt them to disc while Outlook was still
open. The .pst files were still attached and in use by my profile.
Now when i attempt to add them to my new outlook profile i get an
error message: "The file <file>.pst is not a personal folders file.
The .pst files that weren't in my profile at the time open up fine.

Unless a commercial package will help (see
http://www.slipstick.com/problems/scanpst.htm for some ideas), the act of
copying them with Outlook open has made them completely useless.

 

[Tanya J via OfficeKB.com]

Thanks - I've tried both and neither work!

 

[George Hester]

Well I am sorry to read this thread. Really. Seems copying the files to a CDR makes those files useless if they were
open in Outlook. By rights you should have been warned of this at the time you did it. Sounds like information in the
psts was in use and thus not transferred over during the copy. You know what I found is that when I downgraded my
Outlook 2003 psts to Outlook 2000 I had trouble with one of three. I just couldn't get it to open in Outlook 2000. I
did get two of them to open though. The result were disabled psts but as all I wanted were the messages and I could
get those I was happy. The point here is maybe you could get at those files by opening them in an earlier version of
Outlook. Maybe not but what do you have to lose to try?

 

[Brian Tillman]

You know what I found is that when I downgraded my
Outlook 2003 psts to Outlook 2000 I had trouble with one of three. I
just couldn't get it to open in Outlook 2000.

Chances are that two of the three PST were still in the Outlook 97-2002 ANSI
format and that the third was in the Outlook 2003-specific Unicode format,
which earlier versiosn can't open.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thanks - I've tried both and neither work!

That's why you make backups, I guess.

 

[George Hester]

Yeah I know but no they were all three in Outlook 2003 format. I was never able to find out why I couldn't get that
one file to open. It just wouldn't. It really didn't have anything in it so I really didn't care. As a matter of fact I still have
them in their original condition. The two that did open griped that there were things in it that were disabled but it didn't
matter. I could get at the messages and that was all I cared about.

 

[Tanya J via OfficeKB.com]

haha. i did that too! but my Pc was reimaged b4 i could get them off after
realising these files wouldnt open.

Oh well - but i will give it a go opening them up in a previous version.