Outlook Scanpst.exe is a utility to allow recovering folders and other items from a corrupted PST file. The Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpst.exe) examines the file directory structure and individual item headers and tries to repair what it can. But there can be instances when the tool might fail to work. This usually occurs when the corruption is severe or if the file size is more than 2 GB. If this occurs, you need an appropriate backup that could restore the lost data or a powerful third-party Outlook Inbox Repair utility that could apply suitable repair algorithms.

For example, consider a situation when you try to start Microsoft Outlook 2000. You can fail to start and receive the below error message:

“The file <drive>:<path><file name>.pst could not be found.”

Where <drive> is the drive letter of your primary drive, <path> denotes the full path to .pst file and <file name> is the name of your Outlook PST file. Since Outlook cannot find the file it requires, it shows ‘Create/Open Personal Folders File’ dialog box to create a new file.

Cause

The .pst file is currently not available for Outlook, because either it is located on an unavailable server or the file is corrupted. Outlook fails to open a corrupted personal folder.

Solution

If the Outlook PST file doesn’t contain important email items, you can simply recreate a new Outlook Personal Folder by following steps as prompted by dialog box appearing after the above error message.

If the file is located on a server that is not available at the moment, you should contact your network administrator. However, you are not suggested to store PST on a server link. The chances are that the file can get corrupt

For repairing the corrupted .pst file, you can use Scanpst.exe. To run the tool, you first need to locate Scanpst.exe file and start the tool after specifying corrupted file path and name.

In case, if Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpst.exe) fails to fix corruption with the file, you are suggested to use more powerful commercial Outlook PST repair tools. These utilities run exclusive repair algorithms for a corrupted .pst file.

For best repair results, you are recommended to use Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair software. It is a high-end Inbox Repair Tool that incorporates powerful scanning algorithms to repair the damaged Outlook personal folder. It supports Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000 and can repair even when the (Scanpst.exe) has failed.