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Outlook Archive Unopenable

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by cmeisner1 1 view

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Had Win2K OS and Office 2000 Pro. Was upgraded to Win XP and the supposedly backed up personal folders will not open now. Our techs have tried everything THEY could think of, but it appears I've lost 122MB of info due to some corruption in the .pst files. ANYONE out there have a clue on what we can do to recover this info?? We're WAY beyond the normal options.

17 replies

by ann777

Are we talking the same hdd drive here?

Was the computer "upgraded" from Win2000 --> WinXP or was the computer essentially wiped and a new OS placed on it?

If the computer was truely upgraded, then the PST file should not have been a problem.

If the computer was wiped, and a new OS placed on the exact same hdd, the ONLY way to recover the data is going to be from another backup of that PST file (barring forensic data recovery possibilities which you'd have to pay major $'s for).
Backup to cdr or cdrw for safekeeping before any kind of an upgrade (even if technical support is supposed to do this, sometimes unattended scripts fail and backups are lost).

I know that this isn't the answer you want. Sorry.

by ann777

One think you can try is to rename the current PST file on the hdd, and then (if the original backup on the server is still available) redownload it and try attaching it. If this happens to work, then the old PST file is probably sitting on a badspot on this hdd...

by ann777

You can also try scanpst.exe ... but your tech support people probably already did try that.

by cmeisner1

Computer was wiped of OS2K, all files were backed up to server, as I don't have CD-R on this computer and files too large for ZIP. Was personal files stored on this hdd originally. No other backup exists. I.T. DID attempt renaming, scanpst.exe and other methods, including sending it to OS 2K and 98 machines - no luck.

by sgt_shultz

hmmm. do you have an account on the XP with the same user name and password as before? do you have your hands on the corrupt pst files? have you seen it not work with your own eyes? are there any error messages that might help us?

by cmeisner1

Same user name & password. YES, YES, "Outlook could not track the program used to open this document. Any changes you make...will not be saved to the original..." and "You are attempting to open a file of type 'Office Data File' (.pst) These files are used by the operating system and by various programs. Editing or modifying them could damage the system. If you still want to open the file, click Open With, otherwise, click Cancel. OK, so I Open With Outlook, it creates a new e-mail with the file as an attachment, and when I double click on the attachment, it's the same vicious circle again.

by cmeisner1

Thanks, but been there, done that. One problem we keep encountering is that the system asks to copy/import from "Personal Folders", but it was listed "Archived Inbox". This seems to be one major stumbling block. The other is that even though the .pst scans clean, it won't open. (see the latter part of my comment to sgt schultz-answer 2 above). It's 122MB, otherwise I'd offer to send out for other's in-house attempts...doesn't contain anything others couldn't see...lots of tech news...Idid send it to one of my tech's computers to try opening in Win2K, also tried on my Win98 machine, still no go.

by m.a. durkee

Okay, it may sound silly...but, have you checked to make sure that it doesn't have the "read only" attribute checked?

by cmeisner1

Not silly, but yes, it's been checked that it's clear...you want I should send it to you? e-mail me direct, then when you get it figured out & open, post your answer to get your points....

by m.a. durkee

Okay, I've sent you and email directly. I'll see what transpires...hopefully I can help you out.

by rboyer

You shouldn't get the open with problem. I am assuming that you didn't use the Import/Export function in Outlook. If you haven't used the import .pst file, then the online help will walk you through it. If you did use the import function, then I am sorry I wasted your time.

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