outlook.pst file corrupt

SexyGreyFox · 10 Jun 2009 at 08:34

My PC turned off last night and now it won't load my PST file.
I've tried the scanpst.exe tool but that won't fix it.

Any suggestions?

greeny_fastcar · 10 Jun 2009 at 08:41

Tried Previous Versions? Might be a backup of it, well if your running Vista that is.

bigmac121 · 10 Jun 2009 at 11:07

What is the ACTUAL error message you are getting?

SexyGreyFox · 10 Jun 2009 at 20:29

I'm having hell of a time with it.
I can't even copy the outlook.pst file to another hard drive because I get a CRC error.
At the moment I'm using a hard disk recovery program to see if that might do something useful.

The only backups I've got are quite old - another lesson learnt.

Pho · 10 Jun 2009 at 20:48

A CRC error suggests it's the hard drive itself which is dying.

SexyGreyFox · 10 Jun 2009 at 20:59

Pho said:
A CRC error suggests it's the hard drive itself which is dying.

That is what Ontrack Recovery has just told me - too many errors to carry on.
Now is the time to put those 2 new 1TB drives in I had 3 months ago.

There was so much data in that outlook file, I've lost loads of stuff.

cokecan · 10 Jun 2009 at 23:03

you could possibly try running a chkdsk in the command prompt (run chkdsk /f to fix errors if it finds any). It's a long shot if the drive is on its way out but it may be able to fix enough to recover your pst file

SexyGreyFox · 11 Jun 2009 at 07:42

I've ran Spinrite overnight and even that couldn't fix the drive

The Mad Rapper · 11 Jun 2009 at 12:20

Is this business critical data?

You could try forensically extracting the data. I'd use Encase to pull the PST out, then something like Stellar Pheonix to deal with the damaged PST, extracting all valid messages to .eml files

Uhtred · 11 Jun 2009 at 13:07

You might be able to get it off the drive with something like http://www.toggle.com/lv/group/view/kl32824/Unstoppable_Copier.htm

Then try using scan pst to see if it will fix it
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/outlook/HA010563001033.aspx

SexyGreyFox · 12 Jun 2009 at 18:07

Zap said:
You might be able to get it off the drive with something like http://www.toggle.com/lv/group/view/kl32824/Unstoppable_Copier.htm

Then try using scan pst to see if it will fix it
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/outlook/HA010563001033.aspx

I left it all night and out of a 244 meg file it copied 141 meg of it which scanpst.exe then fixed.
My only problem is that all my contacts have disappeared unless they're in another file

Uhtred · 12 Jun 2009 at 20:42

Nope, they would be in the pst as well :/

SexyGreyFox · 13 Jun 2009 at 01:32

Zap said:
Nope, they would be in the pst as well :/

SexyGreyFox · 13 Jun 2009 at 14:00

When I imported the repaired file it left a directory in Outlook called Lost & Found and all my Contacts were in there.

I actually wrote a small batch file for 2 of my customers years ago that backs up outlook.pst, Sage 50 files and some XLS files to another part of the hard drive and a USB stick but never used it myself.

Thanks

Jhon_Steve · 2 Mar 2012 at 11:49

You can use Outlook recovery tools to repair your PST file. Below is a list of them:

http://www.datanumen.com/aor/compare.htm

Most of them provide a free demo so you can try first.

Steve

Dimple said:
My PC turned off last night and now it won't load my PST file.
I've tried the scanpst.exe tool but that won't fix it.

Any suggestions?

Pho · 2 Mar 2012 at 12:47

Spam bots need to learn how to check thread dates

.

edit: if the above post gets deleted I didn't resurrect this post.

SexyGreyFox · 2 Mar 2012 at 18:17

I know it was 2009 but I still haven't got it working :eek: