One of the more common topics/questions in our Free Tech Support Forum is How-To repair or recover email from a corrupt Microsoft Outlook PST file.  I personally use PST files daily with Outlook for email archiving and other workflows I follow which is why I backup my PST files weekly.  If I were to lose an entire PST file it would hurt for sure…  So with this in mind, let’s jump right into the repair process.

 

Fortunately, Microsoft created a PST Repair Tool called SCANPST which is capable of both repairing corrupt PST files and recovering deleted emails inside a PST file.  The application is free and normally included with all installations of Microsoft Office 2007 / Outlook 2007.

 

How to Fix / Repair Broken Microsoft Outlook PST Files

 

1. Click the Start menu and in the search or Run dialog, Type C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\SCANPST.EXE and Press Enter.

 

1a.   Optional: You can also find this file by Clicking My Computer and browsing to the destination.  Once there Double-Click SCANPST to open it.

 

2.   Type in or Browse to the location of your Outlook PST Files.  Press Start to begin the repairing.

Note: Microsoft Outlook 2007 must not be running to complete this step. 

 

Step 2 Tip: By Default, PST files are stored in the following locations:

Windows Vista & Windows Server 2008 : C:\Users\MrGroove\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\MrGroove\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\

 

 

3.   The repair tool will offer you a quick summary of what errors it has found in it’s initial scan.  Click the checkbox for Make backup of scanned file…, and then Set a Location to save your backup file.  To finish the process, Click Repair and Outlook will go through and fix all of the errors found in your PST file (hopefully……).

 

Performing a Search for keyword PST will provide additional resources and information on PST files and support.

Tags: disaster-recovery, Microsoft, microsoft office, outlook 2007, pst