Error Opening Outlook 2010 PST File

Microsoft Outlook 2010 is a newer version of Outlook provided with advanced features never seen in previous Outlook versions. With Outlook 2010 you can manage large amount of emails with the help of conversation management tools so that you can condense, categorize or ignore the entire conversation with in few mouse clicks. By this feature dozens of messages turns in to just a few relevant items. You can combine multiple e-mail accounts, calendars, and address books and easily manage them from a single centralized view. It helps you to easily configure new and existing accounts, clean up your inbox and visually see how much space is left in your mail box. You can manage the schedules using the new schedule view. You can view multiple Outlook calendars, Windows Live or the shared calendars in a streamlined horizontal display.

However even after being so advanced this version is not free from corruption. If the PST file of Outlook 2010 gets corrupted or damaged then you can use built in inbox repair tool scanspst.exe to fix the PST file. But if the PST file is heavily corrupted then scanpst.exe becomes ineffective. In such situations you need to employ third party applications like PST repair utility to fix severely damaged PST files. If the PST file gets corrupted then it cannot be accessed and you may encounter strange, confusing error messages when you try to open the PST file. Since the PST file contains all of the user’s vital documents in Microsoft Outlook ( emails, calendars, RSS feeds, tasks, journal entries) the PST file errors lock the user out of the program landing in data loss situation. Users cannot send or receive emails, update information in their calendars or add new contacts to their address book.

PST file corruption reasons along with the reporting error messages are described below:

• Oversized PST file: The size of the Outlook PST file is fixed. If the PST file size reaches fixed limit then it shows abnormal behavior and the following error message pops up on the screen:

  “Outlook.pst cannot be accessed” – 0X80040116

• Header corruption: PST file is composed of two parts. File header and the following data part. The file header contains the most important information about the file like file signatures, file size, compatibility. If the header gets corrupted and cannot be recognized by the Outlook then the Outlook assumes that the whole PST file is not a valid file and reports this error.
  

  “The file xxxxx.pst is not a personal folder file.”

  Here xxxxx.pst is name of the personal file to be opened.
• CRC Error: Microsoft Outlook performs CRC check each time when you open the PST file. Cyclic Redundancy Check is performed for data reliability. It detects any changes made to the Outlook data File used across the network or stored on any data storage devices. If you encounter any sort of CRC errors messages while accessing the PST file it indicates some errors in PST file or storage device. It is mainly due to some errors in the storage device where the data file resides. Error message displayed on the screen due to CRC error is:
  

  “xxxxx.pst could not be accessed. Data error. Cyclic Redundancy Check”

• Other error messages: “PST file has become corrupt or locked,” “Outlook cannot find your PST file,” “An unknown error has occurred,” “Ol97 Error opening a shortcut to an item in a PST,” or “XCLN Error Msg. Opening PST: The folder could not be opened.” By the time you encounter one of these error messages it indicates that the PST file is corrupted. You need to run the scanpst.exe to fix it. If the file is severely corrupted beyond repair by scanpst.exe the use pst repair tool.

Irrespective of the error message that you are getting due to PST file corruption you can easily fix the file with the help of PST repair tool. This utility can fix password protected PST files with simple mouse clicks. Fixed PST files will be created in Outlook 2003- 2010 for easy import. You can retrieve email messages, calendars, contacts, RSS feeds, meting requests, tasks, appointments from the PST file after repair. Use this application to repair Micosoft Outlook 2007 along with other versions of Outlook like 2000. 2003, 2010. Email messages emptied from deleted items folder or deleted from any Outlook folder can easily recovered. This tool can repair PST files over 2GB of Outlook version 2000 which shows abnormal behavior after crossing a fixed limit of 2GB. It is the best tool to fix Outlook errors and recover lost emails. With the help of this popular utility you can easily fix Outlook 2000 PST file on Windows OS of different versions such as Windows XP, Vista, 7 etc with utmost ease.

Steps to repair Outlook PST file:

Step 1: Download and install the application on your PC. After launching the application welcome window pops up with three options on it, i.e. "Open PST File","Find PST File" and "Select Outlook Profile" as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Welcome Window

Step 2: Now select "Open PST File" if you know the location of corrupted PST file or select "Find PST File" to allow application to search for the PST file. You can even go for "Select Outlook Profile" to select PST file using different Outlook profiles. Select "Open PST File" option and click "Next".

Figure 2: Select Damaged PST File

Step 3: Select either "Normal Scan" or "Smart Scan" based on the severity of corruption. Provide destination path on your computer for saving the PST file after the repairing process. Click on "Repair" option to start repair process as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Choose Destination Location

Step 4: The utility scans the damaged PST file throughly to get back all Outlook emails and attributes. The Outlook items retrieved from damaged PST file will be displayed on the screen as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Preview