How to Restore a Damaged PST File?

Microsoft Outlook is leading email application in its market. Although the powerful inbuilt capabilities that are built into Outlook offer it an edge lead over other email programs that are designed for business, it’s not immune to mistakes. A corrupted PST file issue is one of the more frequent problems that users encounter.

It is now time to ask which are the causes that are responsible to the PST corrupted files? It is true that there are many causes for PST corrupted file. In some cases, malware or virus attack might be the cause of PST file destruction. Sometimes this is due to corruption due to huge data files, hardware problems or network issues in power, or various other issues with software.

If you think that the PST file has been damaged, this article will be the best resource to help you. In this blog post we’ll go over how you can repair a damaged PST file by using an tool for repair in your mailbox (ScanPST.exe as well as a PST repair tool. What exactly is the PST file and what are its different types?

Personal Storage Table (PST) is also referred to by the name of Personal Folders file, is one of the formats utilized by Microsoft Outlook to store and archive information locally. The format is typically utilized to store data when Outlook is able to be configured for POP3 accounts.

Types of PST files:

There are two kinds of PST formats for files:

ANSI (American National Standards Institute)

UNICODE (Universal Character Encoding Standard)

A ANSI structured PST file is generated by Outlook’s 97, 1998 2000, 2001, and 2002 versions. However, Microsoft Outlook 2003 and later versions generate the Unicode PST file by default.

What is the Best Way to Determine the Nature of Backup PST Backup File?

You can identify what type of PST document by following the procedures:

• Open the Control Panel.
• Click to search and then click the Mail option.
• Click the Data Files tab.
• Select the Outlook data file to open it in the drop-down list.
• Double-click the PST document you wish to review.
• Be sure to look in your “Format” field.
• If it shows “Personal Folders File” or “Outlook Data File”, the PST is a format that uses UNICODE.
• If it shows “Personal Folders File (97 – 2002)” or “Outlook Data File (97-2002)” The PST document is formatted in ANSI format.

Notes: It is mentioned that it is possible to import and access ANSI formatted PST file in Outlook 2003 2007 and 2010 and 2013 2019, 2021 and 2019.

In contrast there is no way to transfer the Unicode formatting PST file to Outlook 2002 or earlier versions. Furthermore the size limitation of 50GB on the ANSI formatted PST files. If the limit is greater than 50GB, it could lead to corruption or damage.

What Types of PST Corrupted Files?

PST file can be damaged by a variety of ways. However, we are able to categorize PST files into two categories:

PST structure corruption: If the file’s internal structure such as its table, header or index has been affected, it’s going to stop Outlook from accessing the data. Outlook from accessing and recognizing the information.

Damage to items in PST files: Damage to mail items within PST File: It includes attachment corrupted files along with individual items that are corrupted, such as email addresses, contacts, and calendar entry.

What is the Cause of PST Corrupted Files?

The corruption of the important outlook database is a grave problem that can lead to loss of important data and details. Knowing the reason behind it is crucial for preventing and recuperation. The main reasons to blame PST damaged files are as follows:

• Hardware problems: Sometimes issues in the hardware, such as failing hard drives, errors in the file system or bad sectors. causes PST corrupted files.
• Power failure: Sudden system shutdowns due to power failures in Outlook utilization can damage the PST structure of your file.
• Attack by a virus:Malicious software can damage the PST document directly, or decrypt the data and make it unreadable.
• Big data filesExceeding the limit of size can result in PST corrupted files.
• The process of closing Outlook abruptly The abrupt closing of Outlook in a manner that is not properly followed can result in PST corrupted files.
• Problems with software: Incompatible programs or extensions can cause problems with Outlook and cause data loss.
• Network problems: Corruption in the PST file can occur if attempts to connect to the data via an unstable network or problems with the server.
• Large attachments to emails: The size of the attachments may cause stress to the PST file and could cause damage to the.

What can I Do to Repair the Damaged PST File?

Restoring damaged or corrupted PST file can be a daunting work because there’s a possibility of losing important information. The integrated Inbox Repair tool (Scanpst.Exe) to resolve PST corruption problems. Furthermore alternative, we could also utilize third-party PST recovery tools such as Stellar Repair for Outlook to fix a corrupt PST file.

How Do You Use the Repair Tool Inbox?

Inbox Repair Tool or ScanPST is included in the full range of Outlook versions. The tool was created to repair and diagnose tiny errors that occur in PST data files. It can be found in the standard MS Office installation directory. You should be aware that the exact location of ScanPST can differ based the version of Outlook or Windows version. It is important to remember that we should refrain from downloading Scanpst.exe on the web. Instead, we should download MS Office with Outlook on the computer to be able to use the program.

Read more: How to Use ScanPST.exe for PST File Repair

Are there Limitations on Using the Inbox Repair Tool (Scanpst.exe)?

Answer to the question is “yes”. Scanpst can fix the smallest PST problems with corrupted files. The limitations of Scanpst can be found below:

Limited capabilities: The inbox repair tool was designed to tackle the structural problems like corrupted tables or headers. The tool isn’t effective at fixing serious corruption issues that involve complicated data files.

There is no data recovery Scanpst concentrates on improving the structure of files, not restoring deleted or lost files. The program cannot retrieve forever deleted emails or attachments.

Data loss risk: There is always the possibility of further loss of data during the process of repair, particularly when files are subject to severe corrupted issues.

Unfriendly for users: The user interface is simple but it does not provide information about progress, which makes it difficult for less technical users.

Not suitable for the majority of PST format: It might not perform well with older ANSI formatted PST formats or with newer Unicode formats, based on the Outlook version.

Backup is essential: Before using the tool, you should create an backup of your PST backup as a security option in the event repairs go wrong or have unintentional results.

What is PST Repair software?

Like we mentioned earlier, as we have discussed earlier, the Inbox Repair tool (SCANPST.exe) isn’t without its limitations, and could not fix serious PST corruption problems.

However, an Outlook PST repair software like Stellar Repair specifically designed for Outlook has been designed to quickly deal with severe or complex corrupted cases.

These tools typically come with more sophisticated recovery techniques that the Inbox Repair Tool.

What are the Advantages that Come with Making Use of Stellar Repair to fix Outlook?

It’s a specially-designed third-party application designed for repair, recovery and repair corrupted as well as damaged Microsoft Outlook PST (Personal Storage Table) PST files. This sophisticated software specifically designed for Outlook administrators and users utilizes unique algorithms for dealing with complicated scenarios like tables, headers, and index corruption.

Here are the top benefits that come with the use of Stellar Repair to fix Outlook:

• Created to address various kinds of PST corruption problems.
• Based on advanced recovery algorithm that maximize the chance of data recovery.
• Provides options to recover passwords for damaged password-protected PST File.
• Reliable recovery of emails attachments and calendar entries, contacts activities, emails, and many other items in your mailbox.
• It has a user-friendly interface, so users of all levels of technical proficiency can utilize it.
• Created to deal with large PST file sizes.
• Compatible with several version of Microsoft Outlook.
• Trial version for free available.

Conclusion:

PST Files are susceptible to corruption or damage. PST problems with corruption can result in the destruction of important mailbox information or attachments.

For the restoration of damaged PST documents, you can make use of an inbuilt Inbox Repair tool provided by Microsoft using MS Office (Outlook).

However, the ScanPST.exe tool comes with some limitations, and it isn’t in a position to repair massive information files. For solving complicated PST corruption problems you can utilize an effective Outlook PST file recovery tool that is like Stellar Repair for Outlook.