I use Outlook 2007 for my e-mail. Two days ago Outlook froze. It started, it loaded some of the folders, and then it just sat…twinkling my to-do list as if to taunt me. It looked like it was trying to load the page, but couldn’t. I guess it was tired of handling my thousands of e-mails and hundreds of to-do items.
It was then I realized my pst file was 2.8GB. Apparently, when the pst cruises over the 2GB limit, bad things happen (And I thought computers could work faster to make my life easier…why doesn’t Outlook keep backups, create updates, and properly allocate my pst so it doesn’t cause unrecoverable problems?)
Usually, I make regular copies of this critical file, but somehow, I had just deleted the single backup copy of this file only hours earlier. And due to its large size, the Microsoft Recycle Bin couldn’t handle it…it was deleted permanently.
No loss though, Microsoft includes a hidden file called ScanPST that checks the pst for errors, repairs it, and gets you back to work in no time at all. Or so I thought. I ran ScanPST. It found 60 errors and repaired them, but Outlook was no better. It still froze just as it did before the scan and repair.
So I searched the Internet. The hand-dandy know-all Internet. Surely, some blog, some BBS, some forum has tackled this issue and some smart geek had all the answers I needed. Most answers told me about ScanPST or even how to ask Microsoft for destructive software to truncate data from my file in case that is the problem. But none of these really solved the problem. I found no expert giving superlative pearls of wisdom on this subject. I did find several companies offering software solutions to repair my PST in exchange for my money. Of the four companies that I narrowed my selection; three had try before you buy software. One company appeared to be coming from Russia, two from India, and one had stores all over the world.
I couldn’t find anyone who had rated these software applications, so I bit the bullet, and downloaded trial versions of the software:
- PST Recovery from India dissapointingly gave me a warning error stating it could not locate my Personal Folder. This is after I navigated to the PST, opened the file and allowed the software to run for several minutes. I clicked <O.K.> and the program continued to run…and run…and run…. At least, the task bar said it was running, but it didn’t tell me what it was doing. After 30 minutes of undetermined behavior with the “processing” bar scrolling repeatedly across it’s little window, I shut down the program and uninstalled it. Scratch one.
- RecoveryToolbox, also from India quickly loaded up and automatically found my PST folder. I selected the PST in question, and clicked on Next. Within seconds, it had located my folders, and began giving me a running status on how many files, folders, sectors, blocks, etc. it had found and was in the processing of sorting out. I let it run… for several hours. It then asked if I wanted to recover the file as a PST or as .eml (for Microsoft Express). I chose PST and it converted up to 5 e-mails per mail folder (trial version restriction). I tested the sample and it all worked. I went back to the website and paid the $50 via PayPal for this software.
At this point, I expected to open up the software, copy the serial number into a field somewhere, then go back to where I left off, and just export the rest of the folders. However, once you load the Trial Version and import the serial number, you must exit and restart the program. And once you exit and restart, you must also re-import the PST from the beginning. (Remember, this alone takes several hours for a PST of gargantuan size like mine…)
So I let that process run again. And now, after many hours, it asked if I wante to export my files. I again saved them as a PST. After 4 hours, I ended up with three PST files. Each one about 1GB or less.
I figured that this was it. The perfect solution to my problem. Well…almost. I did get back what seems to be all of my e-mails and even the folder structure. What I did not get was a well laid out set of PSTs. Let me explain. Each PST has ALL of my folders and the entire folder structure. What it does not have, is e-mail in every folder in every PST. You see, in order to sort things out, the program built the folder structure, and then populated the folders until it hit the ceiling of 1GB. Then it moved on to the next PST, creating the entire folder structure, but populating from where it left off. and so on. So now, it is up to me, the human, to physically open each folder and hunt for mye-mails. And, I am likely to move them around so each folder is a continguous unit rather than an interrupted stream of thought. This lack of organization makes this program worth about $12 to me. But at least I have my e-mails back. But I’m still curious…
- The International Software Company that has the 4th version (I can’t recall the company or the website…I’ll have to add that info later) charges $500 for a personal version of their software. My e-mail is not worth $500. It was worth $50.
- I found other software I’d like to try…but I think I’ll quit while I’m ahead. At $50-$70 a try, this could be an expensive experiment…
If you happen to know of a better way, or have questions…just add a comment below…
(Related: Inside Outlook Express has great information on Outlook Express.)
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