Restore Inaccessible PST File with Scanpst.exe tool

Updated on August 23, 2024 by Savita Sharma

Whenever an Outlook PST file is corrupted, the MS Outlook application becomes unresponsive. Users are unable to access any email items contained in the PST file due to corruption. PST file corruption can occur for a variety of causes, all of then are critical for users to understand in terms of file security. Here we discuss all the reasons in depth in the next section of this article. If user want to open or access corrupt PST in MS Outlook, they must first repair PST file. Users can use either a Manual method or a Professional Regain Outlook PST Recovery application to restore PST files.

In this page, we'll look at both options. Users will find step-by-step instructions for both manual and automated tool here. After that, they will be able to simply make all of the data accessible in the short time. However, before we begin the procedure, let us first discuss the possible causes of PST corruption.

Most Common Reasons for PST File Corruption

The most common causes of PST file corruption are hardware and software difficulties. As a result, we'll go over both hardware and software issues in depth here:

Data storage device failure → To better understand this point, let us take an example: your hard drive contains bad sectors, and your Outlook PST file is stored in those sectors. Then you might only be able to read a portion of the PST file. Alternatively, the info you're reading is incorrect and full of errors.

Problematic networking device → For example, the Outlook PST file is on the network server, and you're trying to view it from a client computer over network connections. Remote access to the PST file can cause corruption if the network interface cards, cables, routers, hubs, and other devices that make up the network connections are having issues.

Power Failure → Power failure is the most common reason that corrupt your PST file.

Wrong file system recovery → It may seem incredible that file system recovery can corrupt PST files. In fact, if your file system is corrupted and you try to recover PST files using a data recovery application, the recovery may not be properly displayed, resulting in PST corruption.

Fatal virus attacks → Many viruses infect and corrupt Outlook PST files. If want to get rid this type of problems then you need to install a good quality antivirus software on your system.

Terminate Outlook Abnormally → In most cases, you should close Outlook by saving any modifications to the PST file and then selecting Exit or Close from the menu bar. However, if your Outlook shuts down unexpectedly while opening and accessing the PST file, the PST file may be damaged or corrupted. This can happen if aforementioned power outage occurs, or when Outlook takes action and you exit it by clicking “End process” in the Windows task manager, or if you switch off your computer without exiting MS Outlook or Windows regularly.

Hence, these are the common causes for PST file corruption. But these corruption issues can be solved and in our next section we will discuss on this topic only. So continue reading this article to know the solution to restore corrupt Outlook PST file.

How to Repair Corrupt PST file using Scanpst.exe tool

If you want to restore corrupt Outlook PST file, you can try an inbuilt inbox repair (Scanpst.exe) tool for Outlook PST Repair in most of the corruption cases. It is a free utility introduced by Microsoft that speedily scans all the errors and helps users to repair corrupt PST files. You need to follow few steps to recover your corrupt PST file using this Scanpst.exe (Inbox Repair Tool). The working procedure of this tool is mentioned below:

Restore PST File with In-Built Scanpst.exe tool (Manual method)

Before starting Outlook PST recovery, fist of all you need to search the PST file location. Only after that, users can use this scanpst.exe utility. Follow the steps below to use scanpst.exe.

1. Click Win+R key to open the "Run" dialog box.
2. Now you have to enter the C:\Users\%username%\Documents\Outlook Files\ and then click "Ok" tab to continue the process.
   Note: – The above path only applies to Outlook versions later than Outlook 2007. But in case you are using Outlook 2007 use C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\ instead.
   
3. Now open scanpst.exe. tool on your Window system.
   
4. Now click the Browse button, to search the PST file that you want to repair, and click Start button.
   
5. Once the scanning process ends, click the "Repair" button to repair the Outlook PST file.
   Note: Before clicking the 'repair' button make sure that you are backing up the scanned file by checking "Make a backup of scanned file before repairing".
   
6. After the completion of recovery process, it will display a message on the screen as "Repair Complete".
7. You are now finished repairing your PST file.
   

Hence, we have discussed the possible manual solutions to recover Outlook PST corruption problems. Users can definitely use this manual trick to restore corrupt pst files; in this article we have explained it in details. However, these manual solutions cannot provide repair guarantee to fix the corruption problem in all instances of corruption. If the above solutions do not achieve success, then you can try the professional Outlook PST recovery software to repair multiple Outlook PST files automatically without any problem or compromise on file size.

An Alternative Way to Restore Corrupt PST File

The Regain Outlook PST Repair tool is developed with the aim of helping Outlook users overcome Outlook problems by performing recovery task on PSTs without prior technical training. This PST Recovery tool works efficiently and easily restore data of Outlook mail objects such as emails, attachments, contacts, notes, drafts, calendars, sent items etc. It restore all the Outlook PST data in such a manner that all the recovered data remains unchanged, you will find all data original as it was before the recovery as there is no alteration in any data contents. Some of the best features of the PST Recovery Software are:

• Capability to recover corrupt Outlook PST files and restore mailbox items to a new usable PST.
• Option to recover and save them in multiple formats including PST, MBOX, EML, MSG, EMLX, vCal and vCard format.
• It gives 100% guarantee for the successful recovery of encrypted & password-protected PST files.
• Simple and easy to use interface, no need of technical knowledge to use the Outlook PST Recovery tool.
• No risk of data loss during recovery as the tool maintains folder structure and preserves the integrity of data contents.
• Provides 'Find PST' option for users who do't know the exact location of PST file stored on system.
• Support multiple Outlook PST file recovery without any glitch or compromise of file-size and also saving log report of a repair process as well.
• It also facilitates users to export repaired PST file to Office 365, Gmail, Yahoo Mail & Live Exchange Server.
• Allow import PST files to all IMAP Servers
• The tool shows compatibility with Windows 11 and its previous versions.

Conclusion

Beyond these features, this PST Recovery software is available with a demo version that allows users to scan corrupted PST files and preview the recoverable data for free. By reviewing the data before recovery, users can assess the performance of this Outlook PST Recovery software and make an appropriate investment decision.