Fix corrupted OUTLOOK email PST files
Awoke this morning to find my Outlook email not working because Outlook2007 was reporting that my PST file was damaged… Aaaaaargh!!! Much scratching of head ensued and vaguely worried faces were pulled while I drank a cup of coffee and wondered what to do next.
Outlook says there is problem with ..\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook\outlook.pst and to run scanpst.exe to fix it.
I’ve recently upgraded to Vista and after searching through the computer still cannot find this file… Google ‘DOWNLOAD SCANPST.EXE’ and the solution is still no easier to find. I eventually (trust me it took a while) found the correct downloads… ran the ‘scan pst’ tool and HURRAH it fixed things for me. So, I’ve attached it to this post in case it’s useful for anybody else.
Unzip the attached SCANPST archive and run the scanpst.exe file. You will get this window:
it asks you for the location of your damaged PST file and then takes ages scanning through it and fixing the problems.
When it’s finished you breathe a little sigh of relief as it pops up a window saying
I left the backup option as default and then sat for a few minutes while it clonked away fixing things.
Then when the REPAIR COMPLETED message appears you can open Outlook and shout “Huzzah!” as you open your recovered PST file.
Next stage – Backup and kick yourself for not doing one before 😉
Does this really work?
Yes. This worked PERFECTLY for me but if it doesnt work got you then (a) at least I tried to help and (b) there are quite a few off-the-shelf software packages out there.
What if the Inbox Repair Tool doesn’t recover emails from my damaged PST file?
If the Inbox Repair Tool is giving you an error message while trying to recover your Outlook PST file(s) or if you are still unable to start Outlook, then you can try the following solutions:
- If you are using Microsoft Outlook 9x, 2000 or 2002 and if the Inbox Repair Tool returns the following error: “Fatal Error: 80040900”, then this may be because your PST/OUTLOOK file has exceeded the maximum file size of 2Gb. A Microsoft article explains how to try something else using a PST/OST cropping tool.
- If you are using Microsoft Outlook in a Corporate, Networked or Workgroup environment, then use the Inbox Repair Tool with Corporate or Workgroup option.
Hope this helps!!!!!