What to do when the Outlook PST gets corrupt due to crossing 2 GB in MS Outlook 2000

In MS Outlook, the PST (Personal Storage Table) file is used to store the all Outlook data that is transferred in both incoming and outgoing communications. In the 2002 and prior versions, the maximum allowed size of the PST file is up to 2 GB, after which it starts getting corrupt. After the corruption, you cannot access Outlook or are unable to carry out certain tasks forcing you to look for corrective measures. You can take the help of the in-built methods to repair the damaged PST file. If these methods do not work or further damage the PST file, then you should use a third-party PST recovery software to do the needful.

Consider a scenario wherein you have MS Outlook 2000 installed on your system. When you try to open Outlook, it crashes abruptly and the following error message is displayed as a result.

“Outlook.pst can not be accessed - 0x80040116.”

You even ran the Inbox Repair (Scanpst.exe) tool to repair the damaged PST file but it does not report any errors.

Cause:

The root cause of this problem has that the Outlook PST file is corrupt because of damage in its index.

The corruption may have occurred as the size of the PST file has reached the permitted size of 2 GB in MS Outlook 2000.

Resolution:

To resolve this problem, you should crop the PST file using the '2 GB Truncation Tool' and then use the Inbox Repair tool. To do this, you should perform the following steps:

• You should download the '2 GB Truncation Tool' from Microsoft Support site.
• Run the tool and select the Outlook PST file that you want to crop.
• After cropping the PST file, you should run the Inbox Repair tool to repair the selected PST file.
• After repairing file, you should import the PST file in Outlook to check to use the PST file.

However, the method discussed here may damage the PST file as it involves cropping about 20-25 MB from the PST file. So, to carry out risk-free PST recovery, you should use a third-party PST file recovery software. These tools are read-only in nature and with the help of highly sophisticated scanning algorithms, ensures that the original PST file is not tempered with.
The best Outlook pst repair tool that is able to repair damaged PST files from all sorts of logical corruption is Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair. Supporting MS Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000 versions for PST repair, this Stellar Outlook Pst Repair software recovers emails, attachments, tasks, notes, calendar items, distribution lists, contacts, etc. With the ability to preserve the formatting of the HTML and RTF messages, this PST recovery software is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.