Symptom:
When opening a damaged or corrupted Outlook personal folders(PST) file with Microsoft Outlook, you see the following error message:
The file xxxx.pst is not a personal folders file.
where ‘xxxx.pst’ is name of the PST file to be opened.
Below is a sample screenshot of the error message:
Precise Explanation:
The PST file is composed of two parts, the file header, and the following data part. The file header contains the most important information about the whole file, such as the file signature, file size, compatibility, etc.
If the header is damaged or corrupted, and cannot be recognized by Microsoft Outlook, then Outlook will think the whole file is not a valid PST file and report this error.
You can use our product DataNumen Outlook Repair to repair the corrupt PST file and solve this error.
Sample File:
Sample corrupt PST file that will cause the error. Outlook_1.pst
The file recovered by DataNumen Outlook Repair: Outlook_1_fixed.pst