Software giant Microsoft has offered a powerful in-built tool that comes with Microsoft Outlook, that allows users to repair a damaged or corrupted PST file. It is vital that users are aware of this tool to use in emergencies. Lets find out how to use to it.
The need to repair PST file arises when the file gets damaged or corrupted, making all the information stored in the file inaccessible. This causes a string of problems for users including loss of important data. Apart from the loss of data the users have to deal with, working with a damaged PST on Outlook can really be a problematic and glitch ridden affair for the users. Organizations the world over deal with massive data collected from the exchange of information that takes place in day-to-day operations. A large part of this is done by email. Therefore, in order to manage the multitude of emails, Microsoft has offered the Outlook email management client that helps IT administrators regulate and manage the email accounts that result in the flow of email within an organization. Apart from being a powerful email management client, Outlook also allows users to create calenders, tasks to do, maintain an address book or a list of contacts, maintain a journal and browse the web to look for information. When Outlook is being run on a server, like the Microsoft Exchange Server or SharePoint Server, all the data that passes to and from Outlook is stored on the server. However, when Outlook is being used as a stand alone client by individual users, all the information on Outlook, such as email, files, user information and other Outlook settings, are stored on a Personal Storage Table or PST file. In order to repair PST files, Microsoft has provided the Inbox Repair Tool, that comes pre-installed with Microsoft Outlook. The purpose of this utility is to scan the PST file in order to determine the extent of damage and repair it accordingly. Another name for the Microsoft Outlook Inbox Repair tool is ‘Scanpst.exe’. The Scanpst.exe tool can be accessed by first going to the ‘Start’ menu and clicking on the ‘Find’ function. When users enter the search or find function, they would first be required to type ‘scanpst.exe’ on the search bar after selecting the ‘File and Folder’ option. The search result will contain the tool. Double click on it to access it. Once the Inbox Repair Tool has opened, users would need to manually type the name of the PST file that they want to repair or they can also select the damaged file from the file browsing option. Before users repair PST file, they need to make sure that the Inbox Repair Tool makes a back-up of the damaged file . As the tool first scans the PST file for errors, users would need to click on the ‘Start’ button to initiate the process. When the tool has finished scanning the file, users are presented with the option of either quitting the application there and then or continuing with the repair process. The tool also offers a detailed report of the scan it just performed. However, in most of the cases, even if the tool succeeds in repairing the file, some of the information that was originally stored on the PST file might still be lost and will never be able to recover. Users can also use the DataNumen Outlook Repair tool by DataNumen in order to repair heavily damaged PST files.