How to repair a damaged or corrupted Outlook PST file

Robin Stuart is anxious. As a Project Manager at a reputed infrastructure company, he has to compile the progress report for the month. He had safely stored all his important e-mails in PST file but today, when he was trying to access the PST file to develop the report, he just could not open it. He was dumbfounded. There was an upcoming Progress Update meeting, and the PST files just won’t open. He wanted to run away and hide somewhere. We all know that there’s no escape from such a situation. One has to find a solution and that too quickly. First, you need to stop panicking, keep your cool and then explore the in-built Microsoft Outlook Recovery features. Of course, if these don’t work then you’ll have to go for an Outlook PST Recovery tool.

Causes:

Microsoft Outlook PST files are prone to corruption owing to various reasons including:

·     File sharing over a networked drive

·     Unexpected shutdown

·     Disrupted compaction

·     File header corruption

·     Virus infection

·     CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) error

·     Exiting Microsoft Outlook abruptly

Resolution:

·     Using the Inbox Repair Tool: For effective Outlook Recovery and to fix corrupted PST files, you can use the Inbox Repair Tool. It works by repairing the PST file’s header and then deleting anything in the file that it doesn’t understand. So if a PST file’s header is damaged, as may be the case for corruption that occurs during a version upgrade, the tool should have no trouble making the repair. But if the data within the file is corrupt, the Inbox Repair tool will probably destroy what’s left of the file. That’s why, it’s always good to backup the PST file before running the Inbox Repair tool.

·     Opting for a third-party Microsoft Outlook Recovery software: is a sure-shot way to repair corrupted or broken PST files of Microsoft Outlook and restore them at a user-specified or default location. These tool generally save the data in a new Outlook-usable PST, which the user can import in MS Outlook to access the PST content.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair Software is one such powerful Outlook Recovery tool supports recovery of PST files created in MS Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000. Compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003, 2000 and NT4 (SP6), this software also provides recovery of deleted emails from Deleted Items folder and all the emails which had been permanently deleted.

PST corruption – Causes and Tips to Recover from corruption

MS Outlook is an email application that enables you to communicate with your contacts by means of emails. Apart from being a routine email application, it can also be used for various other purposes as creating calendar entries, managing address book, setting up meetings and reminders, etc. All such information is stored in a proprietary file format called a Personal Storage (PST) file. However, at times this PST file can get corrupted due to various reasons. In such scenarios, you should take appropriate measures to rectify the situation. However, if you are not able to repair the PST file then you should use a third-party Outlook recovery software to do it for you.

Reasons of corruption:

There could be various reasons for PST corruption that could either be hardware as well as software reasons. Such reasons are collated for you in the following points:

· Hardware reasons:

◦ Power failure: A power failure may lead to PST corruption as Outlook is exited abruptly.

◦ Data storage device failure: It may be possible that the location where the PST file is stored has bad sectors, which leads to PST corruption.

◦ Faulty networking device: If the PST is on a server computer and you are accessing it from a client computer, then faulty hardware components may cause the PST to get corrupted.

· Software reasons:

◦ Deficiencies in Outlook programs: Some bugs in Outlook may result in PST corruption. For example, the Outlook versions before Outlook 2003 used to get corrupt as soon as their size crossed 2 GB.

◦ Incorrect file system recovery: Sometimes when you recover the file system, it is not recovered properly, which may lead to PST corruption.

◦ Virus or other malicious software: Certain viruses are designed to corrupt the PST files.

◦ Terminate Outlook abruptly: If Outlook is exited abnormally, then there are chances that the PST file may get corrupt.

Resolution:

To resolve the PST file corruption, you should use the in-built Inbox Repair (Scanpst.exe) tool. This tool is able to verify and correct errors in the internal data structures of PST file. However, if you still are not able to repair the corrupted PST file then you should use a third-party Microsoft Outlook recovery software to do the needful for you. Such read-only tools are able to recover Outlook objects without overwriting the original contents.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair( http://www.microsoftoutlook-recovery.com ) is an Outlook recovery software that successfully restores corrupted PST files. It supports MS Outlook 2010 (Beta), 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000. This MS Outlook recovery software is able to recover Outlook objects, such as emails, contacts, calendar entries, journals, tasks, meetings notes, etc. In addition, this tool is able to preserve the formatting of the RTF and HTML messages. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and Server 2000.