Outlook PST files have always been a trouble for Exchange users. A PST file is not only tricky to administer and manage, but difficult to back up making it prone to data loss. These files have long been associated with archiving email data out of Exchange mailboxes. But Outlook PSTs have posed serious problems for the Exchange administrators. Besides the problem of managing email, these files are vulnerable to corruption. A range of factors cause PST corruption, including virus attacks, system glitches, operating system bugs, and the like. Outlook provides an inbuilt utility ‘Scanpst.exe’ to repair PST corruption and recover inaccessible folders and items. Mentioned below is a detailed step-by-step procedure to resolve PST corruption using ‘Scanpst.exe’ or Inbox Repair tool:• Run ‘Scanpst.exe’ against the corrupt file to fix errors:
o Close MS Outlook.
o Enable ‘Show hidden files and folders’ setting in your folder options.
o On the ‘Start’ menu, click ‘Find’ or ‘Search’. Type in ‘Scanpst.exe’ in the ‘Search’ box.
o Double-click ‘Scanpst.exe’ file in the search results.
o Click ‘Browse’ and navigate to the corrupt PST file. The default location of PST for Outlook 2010 on Windows 7 is ‘disk drive:\Users\username\Documents\Outlook Files’
o Click ‘Start’ to initiate the repair. Click ‘OK’.
After repairing errors using ‘Scanpst.exe’, a list of recovered folders is displayed in the left navigation pane. You need to move these recovered items to a new PST file in your profile. To accomplish this, follow the next step.
• Recover all the repaired items:
o Launch Outlook and choose the profile corresponding to the corrupt PST file.
o Go to ‘View’ and choose ‘Folder List’ to see the list of Recovered Personal Folders. These folders will not contain any item. You can find all the recovered folders and items in the ‘Lost and Found’ folder.
o Create a new Outlook PST file in this profile. For Outlook 2010, follow the procedure:
-Click ‘File’ and then select the ‘Info’ tab.
-Click ‘Account Settings’ button and then select ‘Account Settings’.
-Select the ‘Data Files’ tab.
-Click ‘Add’. The ‘Create or Open Outlook Data File’ dialog box is displayed.
-Specify a name for the new PST and click ‘OK’.
-Click ‘Account Settings’ button and then select ‘Account Settings’.
-Select the ‘Data Files’ tab.
-Click ‘Add’. The ‘Create or Open Outlook Data File’ dialog box is displayed.
-Specify a name for the new PST and click ‘OK’.
o Move all the folders and items from the ‘Lost and Found’ folder to the new PST file.
o Remove the ‘Recovered Personal Folders’ file from your Outlook profile.
If ‘Scanpst.exe’ fails to recover all your lost mail items, take help of professional Outlook PST Repair tools. These software help you repair and restore all damaged Outlook PST objects, including emails, attachments, contacts, notes, calendar entries, and journals. Further, they support MS Outlook 2010 and all the lower versions.
