As part of our ongoing security program, I changed the e-mail password on a system running Outlook 2000 on a Windows XP platform. The change was made while in user mode, not Administrator mode. When I restarted Outlook to check that the system would connect with the e-mail server, I found that almost all of the information except for the Sent Items folder had disappeared.
I checked Windows Explorer and found that the .pst file associated with the Outlook installation measured 38MB vs. the 5MB shown within Outlook. I reloaded the Office 2000 suite in case there was a program fault to no avail. I also used the Inbox Repair Tool to recover the information but the program reported that there were no problems with the file.
I made a copy of the affected .pst file just in case before I started. I plan to try using another system to extract the information from the file and import it back to the affected system.
I have never seen or heard described a problem like this. Attempts to use Microsoft’s Knowledge Base have been marginal at best with no specific article (so far) giving me the information I need to troubleshoot and, hopefully, correct the fault.