Unable to open my default e-mail folders

[Guest]

Outlook 2003 has been operating fine for over a year. Today I get :

"Unable to open your default e-mail folders. Outlook could not start
because a data file to send and receive mail could not be found. To add a
data file, such as a personal folder file, double-click the Mail icon in
Windows Control Panel."

I assume I some how deleted my default folder, or it has been corrupted. I
do have a backup using MS Backup from last night. Should I restore from the
backp, created a new default folder, or is there a better solution??

 

[Guest]

Close Outlook. Unhide hidden files and folders using Windows Explorer (Tools

Folder Options > View). Then do a search of your computer for *.pst. The

default name of the PST (Outlook data file) is usually outlook.pst. This will
give you the location of the file.

Then do a search for scanpst.exe. Once you locate it, double-click it and
follow all the default instructions, browsing to the location of your PST.
Scan it, even repeatedly, until it finds no errors. Then open Outlook and try
to use the PST again.

Let me know if this helps, if not there are other options.

 

[Guest]

After viewing all files the search did not find and outlook.pst. I also
restored my most resent full backup to and external disk, and searched it
with no luck. I rarely shut Outlook down while my PC is up, so the file must
have been skipped. I did find a year old backup.pst, and my last (03012007)
exports of the inbox and contacts.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

[Guest]

The PST file can be renamed to whatever you want. It's possible at some point
you or someone else named it something else. Search for *.pst in that case.
Note that the archive.pst is just that, your archived items.

 

[Guest]

My original search was for *.pst, which found the year old backup.pst. I
then searched or outlook.*, which found several files: 1 .tif, 3 .pf, 1 .exe,
1 .hol and 1 .gif. I received the same results on the full backup data
restored to my f: volume.

I also ran chkdsk c: /f on a reboot and found no disk errors. I'm not sure
what happend to the .pst files.

 

[Guest]

Kathleen, I eventually found the Outlook.pst and ran scanpst.exe twice. All
errors were corrected on the first run.

Unfortunately Outlook it didn't fix the problem. Outlook still fails on
startup with the same error.