Unable to open backed up .pst file

[Jeremy Browning]

Hi

I have WinXP and OL 2k on my laptop, but the machine died and has gone off
for repair. In the meantime I backed up my Outlook.pst file and copied it to
my old PC, which runs OL2k on Win98, but I can't open the file - I get a
message saying "Properties for this information service must be defined
prior to use" and then "The file D:\Files\JHB.pst is not a personal folders
file". The same thing happens with my archived .pst file.

As far as I know the .pst files are not corrupt, they were working fine when
I backed them up and it's highly unlikely that *both* would corrupt at the
same time. I've looked on the Web and there's lots of sites saying that this
can happen if the file has read-only attributes but I've changed all the
file attributes every which way and still no luck. I've also tried running
the inbox repair tool but that results in a pst file that is about 20k
smaller and has nothing in it when opened in OL.

Any suggestions? Is it possible that there's some incompatibility with 98
because the files were created under XP?

TVMIA

Jerry

NB: to reply to me in person, pelase remove all the hash marks (#) from my
email address
jeremy.browning###@###btinternet.com

 

[Roady [MVP]]

If you made sure the file isn't read only you can add the pst-file by
Tools-> Services (or E-mail Accounts; depends on the mode you are running
in)

--
Roady [MVP] www.sparnaaij.net
Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office related News
Also Outlook FAQ, How To's, Downloads and more...

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[Jeremy Browning]

Hi Roady

Erm - I don't have Services or Email accounts on my Tools menu. I *do* have
'Accounts' and the email page of that allows me to import an .iaf file, but
not a .pst.

Or did I misunderstand you?

Cheers

J.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Nope, depends on the mode again :-S

Can you create a new pst-file from File-> New-> Personal Data File...? If
this succeeds you should be able to open the other pst-file by File-> Open->
Personal Data File...

--
Roady [MVP] www.sparnaaij.net
Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office related News
Also Outlook FAQ, How To's, Downloads and more...

Tips of the month:
-Save Embedded Pictures in Their Original Format
-Create an Office XP CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 3

 

[Jeremy Browning]

Yes, I can create a new pst file, close it and open it again.
No, I still can't open the archived one :-(

J.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I'm afraid the pst-file got damaged in a way then. Instead of running
scanpst.exe against the file you could also try the following (expensive)
tool;
http://officerecovery.com/outlook/index.htm

--
Roady [MVP] www.sparnaaij.net
Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office related News
Also Outlook FAQ, How To's, Downloads and more...

Tips of the month:
-Save Embedded Pictures in Their Original Format
-Create an Office XP CD slipstreamed with Service Pack 3

 

[M Skabialka]

I have used this method to recover an Outlook 2002 .pst file which could not
be opened.

In Outlook 2003 I created a new .pst file (Tools, Services, Add, Personal
Folder).

File | Import and Export | Import from another program or file | Personal
folder file (.pst)

Follow the prompts to select the corrupted .pst as the import from and the
new .pst as the file to import into, replacing all messages.

At first it may look as though it freezes Outlook if it is a big file, but
the if the hard drive is cranking along it's OK.
It should then show the entire structure of the corrupted file, and you
should be able to continue and tell it to place it all in the new.pst.

I have been told this shouldn't be done, but it doesn't affect the original
file and it did work to recover the lost information into a new file. You
should always make a copy of the original file anyway, just in case.

Mich