[Ham-Computers] RE: SCANPST

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

(Dick, I posted this on the reflector as it might come in handy for others...hope you don't mind.)


Ahhh!  You "broke" your PST by going over 2GB!  As I mentioned earlier, once you hit 2GB, the PST "breaks" and Outlook can no longer handle it properly.  Often, Outlook will just balk at attempting to open it.
 
In order to repair the PST file, you'll need to follow the instructions in this MS Knowledgebase article:

  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296088/en-us
 
Although this article specifically applies Outlook XP/2002 and earlier, it also applies to Outlook 2003 if the PST file was migrated from an earlier version of Outlook or if Outlook 2003 was instructed to create a Outlook 98-2002 style PST file.
 
Run the repair tool to truncate the PST to a "manageable" size.  NOTE: the truncation *will* delete some e-mails - there's no way to avoid this.  You want to cut off about 20MB (maybe more) so you're back under the max size of 2GB.  Then use SCANPST to repair the file.  Once repaired, Outlook should then be able to open it.
 
Since you have more room on your "D:" drive, I suggest you create a copy of the PST on the D: drive and run the tools on the copy.
 
So your basic steps are:
 
*  Follow the link, read the instructions, and download the truncation tool.
*  Copy the PST to your D: drive
*  Run the truncation tool against the PST on the D: drive
*  SCANPST on the PST on the D: drive (and allow it to create a backup)
*  Overwrite the original PST with the repaired one
*  Open Outlook and see if it opens the PST.  If it does, continue.  If it doesn't run the truncation tool again, but use the backup copy of the original PST.
*  Add a second PST file to the Outlook Profile (use the new Outlook 2003 PST format)
*  Drag and drop up to half of all the e-mails to the second PST.
*  Run a "compress" routine on both PST's (instructions in the link above).
 
At this time, you should have two PST files that are about 1GB each in size.  Even with the new PST format, I would suggest that you further reduce the size of the PST files by creating additional PST's and moving mail around.  I have several PST files - one for each year.  This helps keep the size of the PST manageable and also makes searching by date easier.  BTW, you can name the PST anything you want when you create it.  I call mine "2006 Archive", "2005 Archive", "2004 Archive", etc.

 
Good luck & 73,
 
  - Aaron, NN6O
 
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Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 6:17 PM
Subject: RE: SCANPST

The Outlook.PST is 2,174,481KB.  II think that equates to 2.279 gigabytes?

Yes, I executed CHKDSK and it displayed "NO PROBLEMS".

I have one personal folder that 16K+ emails and I have been trying to copy it to my "D" drive which has alots of room but it refuses to allow it.

If I could copy it, then I would pursue it further like you suggested.and hopefully repair it, if its not to large like you explained.

Even better, would to start a new file with a suffix to differentiat from the old in case I wanted to search that file by copying it back to Outlook.PST?


Dick, NJ9K
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