Reader Question: How can I fix a corrupt pst file?

Microsoft Outlook saves your messages, calendars, archives, and other items in files with .pst extensions. These files can only be opened and used with Outlook.

Sometimes these files can become corrupt causing errors or can even become completely unreadable.

Usually the problem will become know when Outlook is opened and an error message will appear like this on:

Outlook will open once the error message is acknowledged and Outlook will operate normally. But once Outlook is started again, the message will usually reappear.

There is an easy procedure to fix corrupted .pst files and it only takes a few minutes.

Here are the steps:

Note: backup any .pst files before going further. Do not use SCANPST.EXE on any file that is not backed up.

Run SCANPST.EXE on the .pst file that is corrupt.

Navigate to the SCANPST.EXE file using Windows Explorer. On my computer, the file is loacted at: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\SCANPST.EXE.

Double click the SCANPST.EXE icon and the you should see the window below. Click Browse.

Navigate to and select the .pst file that needs scanned.

Once you have selected the .pst file you will see the window below. Click Start.

If your .pst file is corrupt, you will see a window like the one below. Click Repair.

Once the scan and repair process is complete, you will receive a Repair complete message.

Now just repeat the process for any other .pst files that need scanned.

This may fix any corrupt error messages due to corrupt .pst files.

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