How to Recover Deleted Outlook PST Files

What is a PST File? The PST File of Microsoft Outlook is a useful application that allows the storage of Outlook emails for both received and sent emails in the hard drive of the computer. Fundamentally, it allows you to break down your backed-up information into smaller, more manageable files. There is, however, a great risk of corruption of this archive PST file that an Outlook data file is often backed-up to. Therefore, it is always advisable to keep a backup of the PST file in a network drive. Built-in inbox repair tool Microsoft Outlook and PST Recovery applications can be of great help, in the event of corruption.

Using Outlook Inbox Repair Tool

To repair a damaged PST file, there is the built-in Inbox Repair Tool in Outlook. Alternatively, you may want to try a recovery application or a non-corrupt backup, if you have one.

Sometimes you may try to restore your information from a PST archive and receive the following error message:

The file drive_letter:archive.pst is not a personal folders file.

The above behavior indicates that Outlook is unable to read the archive.pst file because it is corrupt; the file doesn't have valid personal storage folder structure.

An Outlook PST file is not supported over any network link. The PSTs are designed for local storage. The network links use network-access-driven methods, which is contrary to file-access-driven methods used by PST. When the network traffic is not apt, it is possible that the file may display errors. For this reason, an archive.pst can be corrupted by being saved on a network drive.

Outlook Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpse) is a utility that you may use in this case to repair your damaged archive.pst. It is highly recommended that you back up the damaged PST first as running the tool can irreparably damage the file.

Quit the application, locate folder options, and enable Show hidden files and folders. Next, click Start/Search, or Find and type Scanpse into the search box. Double-click to open the file and locate your damaged archive.pst. Finally, click Start to begin the recovery process.

Upon reopening the file in question, the corruption problem should not exist.

Using a Microsoft Outlook Recovery Tool

If Scanpse cannot repair the file, you should restore it from backup. When no valid PST backup is available, you need to use a Microsoft Outlook Recovery tool. These are powerful PST Recovery Tools that can repair a corrupted PST, irrespective of file size, nature of corruption, and extent of damage.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair is a safe and advanced PST recovery tool (free) that repairs a corrupted PST created with Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000. The comprehensive PST Recovery Software is designed to run powerful scanning algorithms. The software can recover all emails, notes, contacts, journal, calendar etc.

For more details: https://www.stellarinfoom/outlook-pst-file-recovery.php

Photo: © Microsoft.