Outlook.pst problem

I am having problems due I think to a corrupted oversize Outlook.pst file (Outlook 2007) Scanpst.exe cannot reliably fix it ie, it fails soon after repair.

Which is the best Outlook.pst file repair tool?

Many thanks!

In reply to a post by Ancient_Mariner:

Which is the best Outlook.pst file repair tool?

Not sure, mine has never corrupted. All the same, I make regular backups of it.

It may be due to the size. Mine is just over 19 GB which I am told is too large for Scanpst.exe to repair.

Cheers!

It wouldn't surprise me if an Outlook version of that age struggles with large pst's. You could try a newer version which is still supported.

Edited by Oliver341 (Wed 15-Sep-21 10:27:07)

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

It wouldn't surprise me if an Outlook version of that age struggles with large pst's. You could try a newer version which is still supported.

Seconded, Outlook 2007 is postively ancient, and before the 2013 changes to Unicode PSTs. In corporate systems (connected to Exchange) we don't use PST files. We used to advise users to never let a PST get bigger than 2GB as you could lose access to it, back in the days of 2003/2007 etc.

This page may help:
https://www.slipstick.com/problems/pst-repair/repair...

In reply to a post by Ancient_Mariner:

It may be due to the size. Mine is just over 19 GB which I am told is too large for Scanpst.exe to repair.

Cheers!

If you can open the file at all, could you archive stuff off to reduce the file size?

I'm sure there are a lot of old format PSTs connected to newer Outlook versions too. Best thing is to create a new PST and import from the old PST on version upgrades.

Can you successfully import from an old corrupted PST file? Wouldn’t the import process simply fail at some juncture? Genuine question - it’s been at least 15 years since I last clapped eyes on a PST file. I recall with shudders, breaking PST files back in the late nineties and early 2000’s.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Can you successfully import from an old corrupted PST file?

I suppose it's possible, and could be something for the OP to try, preferably with a new version of Outlook.

Something indeed to give a shot at.

Otherwise if Clive has a 'clean' and hopefully recent PST backup, migrating that would hopefully stand a greater chance of success.