It's Not that Hard to Repair a PST File
Monday, March 23rd, 2009If you have worked with Microsoft Office products such as Outlook on a regular basis, then you may have some passing familiarity with PST files. Outlook uses the PST file (Personal Stroage Table) to store all the user data like emails, callander, contacts. Not only does this include e-mail messages from Microsoft Exchange mail boxes, but also calendar items and other task items. In almost all caes the Outlook PST file can be found locally on the end users C drive but it is posible to have it stored on another drive or even over a network.
Over the course of a few years you will most likely encounter a problem with your pst file. It is possible to do a PST file repair using a variety of methods, depending on the severity of the damage. The first task is to find out where your PST files are stored. By default, they can be found in “C:Documents and SettingsUSER Local SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOutlook”. Be sure to substitute your Windows login screen name for USER when typing in this directory. The default filename for your PST file that is hosting your current mail box is Outlook.pst. There is also an archive file available, known as Archive.pst. There is no way of telling if a PST file is corrupt based on visual inspection. In almost all cases you will know the pst file is corrupt becaue when Opening up Outlook it will tell you that.
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Microsoft Outlook comes with an automatic repair method and an external repair kit for fixing Outlook PST files. When Outlook is opened, the program will notify you of this problem, and then attempt to fix the PST file automatically. Outlook will in most cases try to do an automaitc repair of the PST file and you should let it try before having to use the external free Scan tool. In the event that the automatic repair fails to fix the Outlook PST file, you will have to open the Inbox Repair Tool located in “C:Program FilesCommon FilesSystemMSMAPI1033” and search for the Inbox Repair Tool, under the filename Scanpst.exe.
The Inbox Repair Tool is an external executable program that scans and repairs corrupt or damaged PST files. To start this program, double click on the Scanpst.exe executable. You will then see window that will ask you to locate the name of the PST file you wish to repair. After this task is done then it's on to starting the Inbox repair tool to scan and repair the PST file. If the PST file is too corrupted or damaged, the Inbox Repair Tool may not be able to fix the Outlook PST file, requiring other third-party solutions. If the Inbox Repair Tool cannot be found in the specified location, find and run CNFNOT32.exe, which should be in the same location that Scanpst.exe should be located. This will restore the executable back to the proper location.
This guide is sure to help out if your pst file is corrupt.If the Outlook program keeps crashing on you and if that seems to be casuing the PST file to become corrupt then consider uninstalling office. This helps to resolve many different kinds of issues. In case you are having trouble uninstalling office then check out this cannot uninstall site for software to help out.