Outlook Inbox Repair Tool – Known Issues
If you are having difficulty accessing your Outlook data files, you may have noticed a message such as “Unable to display the folder”, “Fatal Error: 80040818”, or “Errors have been detected in the file C:\windows\outlook.pst”. A corrupt .pst file or .ost file within Microsoft Outlook could be to blame for the issue.
Don’t panic! Most Outlook users run into a corrupt .pst file at least once. It is a well known problem with this product and affects most every version of the software. If you are receiving one of these errors and cannot access your data there are some steps you can take to help repair and reclaim it, but a little diagnostics are in order. Let’s look at some options available to help recover your lost Outlook data.
Microsoft has included an inbox repair tool, also known as Scanpst.exe, within Outlook which they note will verify the error and help to repair the data. Although many have had success in using this tool, there are quite a few who run into problems along the way.
Some Common Problems with Running the Outlook Inbox Repair Tool
- Scanpst.exe will crash during the final stages of the repair causing further corruption or unrecoverable data
- A missing .dll file within Scanpst.exe causes it not to run
- Repair Tool cannot fix larger .pst files
- Scanpst.exe file is missing
- Restores files, but cannot restore formatting
- Cannot repair larger files created in a previous versions of Outlook
While some of these problems are existent only in certain versions of Outlook, having to wade your way through the various tech boards to locate yours can be extremely time consuming. There are several ways in which a file can become corrupt, a number of versions, and a number of errors, so locating yours can take awhile and there is no guarantee that this fix will even work.
Thankfully, many third party software developers have done the work for you. They have located known conflicts in each version of Outlook, resolved them, and created an easy to use repair tool which will quickly scan your .pst file and repair your data regardless of the error type or Outlook version you are currently running. Many of these software versions will also go a step further, assisting in the recovery of deleted emails and hard to recover encrypted files.
If you are not having any luck utilizing the Microsoft Inbox Repair Tool or if you are unable to locate it, you may want to check out some alternatives and get yourself up and running quickly. The sooner you can repair PST file the sooner you can get back to being productive with Outlook.
