Member Avatar for Straps

Hi All,
Found your great site whilst looking for alternative ideas to fix problem that has arisen of late. I run Microsoft Outlook Pro 2003 (not exchange server) and recently I have had an increasing amount of problems with Outlook.

It would appear that I have a corrupt section of my hard drive because I very frequently get error / corrupt messages relating to my back up .pst file and location. I have done chkdsk and scanpst to no avail. The attempt to "repair" one of the folders always comes up with "Not responding" and has to be shut down. I am also unable to run a System back up on the machine for some unknown reason.

I now appear to not have the abiltiy to send / receive through Outlook. Also information would not appear in the Reading Pane or I cannot delete certain emails from the Deleted folder in Outlook. It again comes up with "error" type messages.

Questions for you all..
1) Can I somehow delete the current backup files / folders and set up somewhere else. (assuming that the problem relates to a corrupt section of my hard drive).

2) Can I re-install Outlook over the top of the current set up. Wouldn't think that that would help, but not sure.

3) Buy a new Hard drive and transfer info across to new hard drive and bin current / corrupt one

I am at a loss now and would appreciate some assistance.

Cheers
Shane

  • 6 Contributors
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  • 3 Years Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by happygeek

Dani AI

Generated

Quick summary of useful next steps (you already tried chkdsk and the Inbox Repair Tool): preserve the PST, diagnose the disk and Windows environment, then salvage into a clean Outlook profile before attempting anything destructive.

Immediately preserve data

  • Close Outlook and make a physical copy of the .pst to a different drive (external USB or another internal disk). If Windows reports the file is locked, boot to Safe Mode or a rescue/live USB to copy it. If the data is critical, create a full disk image/clone so the original stays untouched.

Diagnostics you can run (non-destructive)

  • Check Event Viewer for Application and System errors: run eventvwr.msc and look for Outlook, Ntfs/disk, VSS or I/O related events.
  • Check drive health with the hard drive maker's diagnostic (SMART tests). CHKDSK can miss failing sectors; manufacturer tools are better for hardware checks.
  • Repair system files with sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt and start Outlook in safe mode with outlook.exe /safe to rule out a bad add-in.

Safe salvage workflow

  1. Create a new Windows Mail profile (Control Panel -> Mail -> Show Profiles -> Add).
  2. Create a brand-new PST and set it as the default data file for the new profile.
  3. Open the copied, suspect PST as a secondary data file and drag/copy folders or messages that open correctly into the new PST. Work only on the copy.

Notes and cautions

  • Reformatting or registry cleaners are last resorts; they can remove evidence needed for recovery. As noted, reformatting fixes a lot but only after you have a verified backup. , and suggested recovery utilities — they can help, but run any tool against a copy or a cloned disk, not the original. If the mail is irreplaceable and the drive shows SMART failures, consider professional recovery before further write operations.

Recommended Answers

All 5 Replies

Member Avatar for Member #46692

Reinstalling outlook won't do much.

Ideally you could have done a system restore but you say you can't.

Hmm that makes things messy cos now you have to start playing with registry cleaners etc.

I don't know. Personally, I would back all the .pst files first then do a reformat of the entire harddrive. To me that would be the easiest and quickest solution. If it is only the one pc that is causing all your problems.

Member Avatar for zxr

Hi, your file is corrupted!

You can try a popular Outlook recovery tool called Advanced Outlook Repair to repair your PST file. It is a powerful tool to recover messages, folders and other objects from corrupt or damaged Microsoft Outlook PST files.
SNIP

Edited by happygeek because: link snipped
Member Avatar for Jacksonmik

If your inbox repair tool is not able to repair your pst file, you can try Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair [/URL]software to repair corrupted .pst files. It can recover emails, contacts, notes, tasks, appointments, and calendar from damaged or corrupted .pst files. it can recover deleted emails attachments and pst files larger than 2GB. First try its demo version to test the utilities and full version to restore information.

Member Avatar for alacemessi

There are many pst recovery applications try any one from them. However, as per my suggestions the best one is the SNIP the application can repair almost all kind of damages and recover your important data saved in pst files. the application is with free trial version. try its free demo to avail its features.

Edited by happygeek because: link snipped
Member Avatar for happygeek

closed

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