unable to open default mail folders

[Marjorie]

I put on Office 2007 on my computer last night. I've had it on before, but
friends couldn't open my Word attachments, so I uninstalled it a few months
ago, and went back to using Office 2003. When I put Office 2007 back on my
computer the other night, I used Outlook to send an email and as far as I
know it worked. However, when I went into Outlook 2007 yesterday morning, I
got this message -

"Unable to open your default email folders. Errors have been detected in the
file D:\Documents and Settings\Marjorie Lloyd\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst. quit Outlook and all mail-enable
applications, and the use the Inbox repair tool (Scanpst.exe) to diagnose and
repair errors in the file. For more information about the Inbox repair tool,
see Help."

I can't very well use the Inbox repair tool if I can't even get into
Outlook. Where do I find the Help? Why would I have this problem now, when I
didn't have it the last time I installed Office 2007 a few months ago? By the
way, all of the other programs, like Word, Power Point, etc work.

Also, I tried uninstalling Outlook 2007 and re-installing Office 2003, but I
get the same message, so both of them don't work now. Should I do virus scan
and try again? I doubt very much I have a virus, as I do scans regulary,
every week.

I tried the scanpst.exe issue in Outllook 2007 on this website, but it
didn't help. Would a re-formatting of my hard drive help? What about starting
in 'safe mode'.

 

[Adrian]

Hello,

Rather than formatting your drive completely it would likely be easier to
start a new .pst if the scanpst.exe tool did not work.

On a side note with Office 2007 you can actually save files in a past
format, such as Office 2003 or earlier. Be advised that some formatting
features may not work.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I put on Office 2007 on my computer last night. I've had it on
before, but friends couldn't open my Word attachments,

That's because Word (and Excel and...) use a different format than prior
versions, but it's trivial to change the default format to one that is
compatible with prior versions.

so I
uninstalled it a few months ago, and went back to using Office 2003.
When I put Office 2007 back on my computer the other night, I used
Outlook to send an email and as far as I know it worked. However,
when I went into Outlook 2007 yesterday morning, I got this message -

"Unable to open your default email folders. Errors have been detected
in the file D:\Documents and Settings\Marjorie Lloyd\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst. quit Outlook
and all mail-enable applications, and the use the Inbox repair tool
(Scanpst.exe) to diagnose and repair errors in the file. For more
information about the Inbox repair tool, see Help."

I can't very well use the Inbox repair tool if I can't even get into
Outlook.

The Inbox Repair Tool should be run when Outlook is NOT open. It is the
file %ProgramFiIles%\Microsoft Office\Office12\scanpst.exe

Where do I find the Help? Why would I have this problem now,
when I didn't have it the last time I installed Office 2007 a few
months ago? By the way, all of the other programs, like Word, Power
Point, etc work.

Did you create a new mail profile when you installed Office 2007? You
should. Existing mail profiles tend to get damaged when installing Outlook
2007. See this:
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm