Problem : Corrupt PST locks up Outlook

February 11, 2015

Problem : Corrupt PST locks up Outlook

In Outlook 2000 we have a user who in trying to backup or modify their email, clicked on and tried to open both the outlook.pst and the archive.pst files on their machine.  Since then their email in Outlook locks up as soon as anything is clicked (try to open a folder, email, click ok on a reminder) and Outlook stops and has to be shut down.  

We have tried scanpst twice with no luck.  As of now the file has been moved and renamed, we removed and recreated Outlook with their new profile and they are now receiving emails since the problem occurred and all is well on that end.  We cannot access any of the old emails from the old pst and if we try to import it into Outlook it corrupts Outlook and locks it up.

Are there are 3rd party tools or items out there or any other ways to try and get this pst to work?  

It is about 1.5 gb, both the archive.pst and the outlook.pst from that day cause the problem if we point Outlook to them.  

We have removed and reinstalled Outlook, removed and re setup the profile, and run the scanpst with no luck.  The pst in question is about 1.5 gb.  The user is looking at losing about 5 years worth of stuff right now.

 

Solution : Corrupt PST locks up Outlook

The PST may be corrupt.  Repair Damaged Outlook PST File ScanPST

How do I know if my PST file is damaged?

When your Outlook PST file is damaged, Microsoft Outlook will try to automatically repair the damaged file: when you start Outlook, you will see a start window telling you that Outlook is attempting to repair your mailbox folders. However, depending on the problem, Outlook may not be able to automatically repair your PST file and so you will not be able to enter the main Outlook window, as a result you will need to try and fix it .

How to repair Outlook

A step-by-step description of repairing corrupted data of any version and size of Microsoft Outlook using a personal computer:

  1. Download Recovery Toolbox for Outlook
  2. Install Recovery Toolbox for Outlook in Windows
  3. Start Recovery Toolbox for Outlook
  4. Select a PST file on the first page of the program
  5. Select the Recovery mode mode
  6. View the content of the PST file
  7. Select a folder for saving recovered data
  8. Select the Save as PST file mode
  9. Click Save