Outlook - inbox repair tool information.

Question

My Outlook e-mail archive (outlook.pst) fell over when I was adding some files to it. I have run the Microsoft Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe) as suggested. This goes through as far as 100% of Phase 4 of 8 before encountering a fatal error and giving up with no changes made.

The log file runs to 4 pages relating mostly to "bad signature" or "missing required column" a few "row doesn't match sub-object"s thrown in, followed finally by "Fatal Error: 80040900". The machine is a 450MHz P2 running Windows NT 4 and Outlook 97. The Archive file is around 2GB. Any suggestions for advancing the repair?

Answer 1

The tool won't work for that file size. It works with lower file sizes, but 2GB is too much for text and images. You can't repair it this way. You actually need to transfer the file using a USB flash driver to a more powerful computer and then install an application that's capable of repairing the PST file.

Access the database of Software Informer to download an application that uses other techniques to repair PST files.