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How to Fix Corrupt PST files in MS Outlook

If you are the victim of corrupt PST files or Outlook popping errors or its running excessively slow, then you must repair the Outlook PST files before its too late. Today most likely people use Microsoft Outlook often to send and receive mails. Due to its Flagship product from Microsoft Office, it makes the primary tool for email. It’s not just an application for managing your email but also your contact, your calendar, your tasks and notes, which are very important and cannot think of losing it. To repair or recover mails from such corrupted PST files, there are many software available, but you may have to chunk out some money from your pocket. However, before trying any paid tool to repair your PST file, try Microsoft in-built PST Scan and Repair tool called SCANPST.

What is Outlook PST Files?

Microsoft Outlook use PST files to store Outlook data, including your mails, email folder, tasks and notes, contacts and other personal data. PST Files are also known as Personal Folders and Outlook Data File.

How to Repair or Fix Corrupt PST Files

Microsoft provides the PST Repair Tool for fixing most of the problem with damaged personal folder i.e. PST Files. In order to repair your corrupted or damaged PST files, we would need to open Scanpst.exe utility that’s included by default with Outlook. This tool can also be used for email recovery while fixing the corrupt PST Files. However, accessing this tool is a bit troublesome since there is no easy shortcut to it, so you’ll need to find in Outlook Folder.

Scanpst.exe utility to repair corrupt PST files

For Outlook 2010, Open the below path in explorer to find Scanpst.exe utility tool.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14

For Outlook 2007, Open the below path in explorer to find Scanpst.exe utility tool.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12

For Outlook 2003 or earlier, Open the below path in explorer to find Scanpst.exe utility tool.

C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033

Step 1: Open the Scanpst.exe utility, Click on Browse and select your corrupted or damaged PST File. If you are not sure about the location of your PST Files then check below for default location of PST Files.

Windows XP

  • Outlook 2007 and previous
    C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\
  • Outlook 2010
    C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\My Documents\Outlook Files\

Windows Vista and Windows 7

  • Outlook 2007 and previous
    C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\
  • Outlook 2010
    C:\Users\%username%\Documents\Outlook Files\

Step 2: Click on Start to scan the PST File

scan corrupt PST files

Step 3: Once Scan is completed. It will display the scanning report. If there is any issue, then it may ask you to click on the repair button in order to repair the PST file. You can also click on Details… button for more information about the error in PST File.

repair corrupt PST files

If everything goes well, you will see “Repair Complete” dialog box. Click on OK and Open Outlook. You might now be able to open your outlook with your exciting PST File. In case it fails to Repair then try again to repair the Corrupt PST File. If it again fails, you might want to try some other popular tools, which are available at very low price.

About Roshan Karkera

Roshan Karkera a.k.a. k.roshan. Blogger by passion and software engineer by profession. He believes in sharing knowledge, which made him to start his own blog. He is very much keen & passionate about new technology & Science. If you'd like to connect with him, follow at Google plus or Twitter.

5 comments

  1. Well composed article 

  2. Yeah! ScanPst is a great Outlook tool that let you repair the corrupt PST file and resolve other related issues.The best thing is that it is available free of cost and gets automatically installed when you install Outlook.
    However, Sometimes it fails to repair the PST file.There are many cases such as it couldn’t resolve the major corruption issues, couldn’t repair the PST file of size more than 2 GB, and sometimes it doesn’t show any error after scan but the Outlook still complains.Such situation lead the users to a trouble and thus make them search for some alternative PST repair solution.
    Microsoft should work over these limitations of ScanPST in the coming versions of Outlook.

  3. Hi,

    PST file is backbone for Outlook . To maintain it’s accessibility,
    you should protect it from unknown errors. However, you must care about
    PST size issues. An over-sized PST file can get damage your Outlook data
    file. So, take essential steps to guard
    your PST file from corruption.

    Sometimes, it is possible that your PST file gets affected by unknown
    errors. At this time, steps that are discussed in this post may be a
    relevant trick to fix corrupt PST file. Apart from this methodology, I
    also found another post to fix and repair PST
    file effectively. You can read whole insight about successful fixing of
    PST repair at :

    http://outlook-troubleshooting-tips.blogspot.in/2013/03/have-you-ever-used-utility-for-recovery.html

    Regards :
    Russell

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